Love bites
by Henriette76
Summary: A different Charlie and Joey story.
1. Chapter 1

**Love Bites**

**A/N: So this is my first attemp in writing a story, hope you like it, have never writen a story in English in my life before.**

**Firstly i would like to thank purplemonkeyys for encouraging me to write this fic. hope you enjoy it purplemonkeyys :)**

**Secondly I would like to thank my writing GOD Amelia Louisa for helping me out. You rock A.L. ;)**

Chapter One

Senior Constable Charlie Buckton stood in the confines of the small dully lit conference room absently inspecting the board containing numerous photographs of the murder victims attached to her current case. She lifted the polystyrene cup to her lips, grimacing as the cold liquid passed her lips, the coffee tasting stale as she forced herself to swallow it regardless.

Tearing her eyes away from the board, she glared at the light above her as it incessantly flickered, cursing the janitor for not fixing it earlier as she had requested. A lot of mundane simple yet important tasks she asked of him didn't seem to be getting completed.

Returning her attention to the board once more she frowned as she looked over their profiles for what felt like the fiftieth time that day, she couldn't help but notice how easily her friends could fit into the description, Any of the women on the board could have been a number of people she knew, Leah, Rachel, Martha and Kirsty flitted into her mind, There was definatly some visual similarities between those women and her friends. Ruby even fitted into it, only slightly but she was definatly in there, the thought alone sent a shiver down her spine at the thought of somebody hurting her sister. She frowned, realising that she herself fell into the category – Female aged between 16 and 30, light brown to dark brown hair, and each tied in some way to her home town, whether it be through work, living or a tourist staying in the Bay.

Another involuntary shiver rippled down her spine as she looked at each of the three victims at their respective crime scenes, each found in the early morning in a public place laid on their backs, their eyes wide open with a fearful tinge to them. Their clothing was ripped, however results had shown no signs of rape on any of the three victims.

Each body was found in a different location, however each in a public place, as if the killer was showing off his kills, bragging about his successful hunts. The murders had been Bizarre for the small coastal town of Summer Bay, never before had they had more than one murder per calendar year, to have three within the past two weeks, however this was not the most bizarre thing about this case, the coroners report for each of the victims stated they each died of blood loss, sure that may not seem so strange, the fact that there was not a drop of blood surrounding the body was the bizarre element, that and the two puncture marks on each girls neck and wrist. If Charlie hadn't known better she would have assumed she was looking at pictures taken from the latest vampire movie that Ruby had made her watch on one of their movie nights. The knock on the door pulled her from her vampire musings.

"Yes" She called out, keeping her eyes focussed on the board, searching for what: she didn't know.

"Senior, we have received another anonymous call about a possible fourth victim found in an alley near the school" Without any need to look for the owner of the voice Charlie sighed, closing her tired eyes momentarily to collect herself for her earlier train of thought, Her shift was due to finish in half an hour, she was looking forward to heading home, having a piping hot bath and dragging herself to bed for a long deserved sleep.

"Right Watson, we best get moving then, I hope you weren't looking forward to getting some sleep anytime soon" Charlie forced a smile as she turned to exit the room, grabbing her jacket as she walked. She noticed the exact same tired expression on her colleuges face that she knew would be written all over her own.

Arriving at the crime scene the first thing Charlie noticed from the drivers seat was another squad car parked outside the blue and white police tape that had been erected to preserve the area. As soon as the car came to a stand still, Charlie yanked on the handbrake and stepped out of the squad car, bracing herself for the sight that she knew was waiting for her.

As she approached the body the first thing she noticed was the pale colourless skin of the hand sticking out from beneath the plastic sheeting an officer had used to cover the body. She took a deep breath as she gripped the blue sheet in her fist, feeling the cool of the plastic against the palms of her hands that she hadn't before noticed were clammy, she peeled the sheet back revealing the same sight she had witnessed three times previously.

"Senior, I think I've found the victim's handbag" Charlie turned to face Watson who held the bag in her gloved hands, They hadn't found any fingerprints at any of the other crime scenes but that didn't mean the killer didn't slip up this time and Watson was determined if there was a scrap of evidence she would find it.

"Is there any ID in the bag?" Charlie called over to her friend who instantly dived into the bag to look, pulling out a purse; she opened it and smiled, glad that she had found something of use.

"Her name is May Stone, from the looks of it she's a teacher here" Watson called over to her superior who nodded, thankful for the information.

As Watson bagged the handbag for evidence, Charlie began to search the crime scene and surrounding area, looking for even the tiniest of clue, something to give them any idea at all of what was going on with these strange murders.

A sense of self consciousness fell upon her as she gazed intently at the ground, she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched intently, looking up her eyes connected with a pair of brown eyes watching her, she couldn't avoid noticing the young woman's pale skin, her long silky black hair disappearing over her shoulders. She tried to tear her gaze away, but she was transfixed in the strangers eyes, a feeling of calmness yet nervousness flitted through her body, her nerve endings tickling as she began to stride towards the woman.

"Senior, the coroner wants to know if they can remove the body now?" Watson called over to her friend, not noticing the woman Charlie was walking towards.

Charlie smiled towards Watson with a professional smile plastered across her face. "Yeah sure, tell them to let me know as soon as they have the results" Charlie watched as George nodded and turned to inform the coroner of Charlie's request.

As Watson walked away Charlie felt her heart beat pitch a little at turning her attention back to the stranger who for some reason drew Charlie's attention to her. There was something about her, she just couldn't place her finger on it. She turned towards the woman to continue her route and talk to her, she frowned when she noticed the previously vacated space now empty. She had only turned away a few seconds and the woman had completely disappeared from view.

Returning to the task in hand before she was distracted, Charlie began searching again, hoping that the quicker the area was cleared the sooner she could get home and get into bed.

*********************************

Charlie entered the house she shared with her sister, Leah and VJ, instantly removing her utility belt and sighing contently at how good it felt to release her body from the burden of its weight. She longed to feel the hot water ease her aching muscles and the tell tale signs of a headache from being awake so many hours.

Flicking the kettle on to make herself a coffee and wake herself up a little, Charlie made to lean against the table, untying her boots she kicked them off, moaning happily as the coolness of the tiles instantly soaked through her socks and soothed her aching feet. Standing up she noticed the folded sheet of paper resting on the table, without reading the name on the front facing side she knew from the writing it was from Ruby. Opening the note she frowned slightly as she read the simple note.

'_Sis, gone to Xav's_

_Gonna see a movie with him later._

_Won't be late_

_Rubes'_

As Charlie poured the water from the kettle to her cup she grumbled softly at her sister being out and about when there was a killer running around in the Bay, she couldn't blame her really, Ruby didn't know there was a killer, nobody knew there was a killer. It had come from the top that they had to keep a lid on the fact there was a serial killer in a small remote town in order to avoid panic amongst the Bay's residents.

Sipping the hot liquid she allowed her mind to mull over the fourth and latest victim, she thought over the crime scene, her mind reverting back to the mysterious woman that she had found herself constantly thinking about since she disappeared into thin air.

She had chastisized herself for even allowing her mind to think about the idea of her instant attraction to the stranger, but she knew deep down that the only time she had ever known her body and mind to react in this way was when she had fallen for another woman a year or so ago, resulting in her heart being shattered. Since then she had resorted to just one night stands with random women determined to focus on her job in town and her career.

She shook her head, frowning at her own foolishness 'For gods sake Charlie, you've only seen this girl for a few minutes from a distance, there is no way I can be feeling like this about someone I probably wont ever see again, I'm just beyond tired, that's it, it's the sleep depravation getting to me' Rising from her chair Charlie dumped her cup in the sink, scrapping the idea of the bath she longed she headed straight to her bedroom, determined to catch some sleep and clear her mind.

******************************************

The young woman gazed at the ceiling above her head as she relaxed back onto the bed in her trailer, It wasn't the comfiest of beds but it was better than nothing and the van seemed fairly clean and well maintained, she had seen much worse as she had travelled across Australia in search of her brother, it hadn't been hard locating him and tracking him what with the mess he left at every turn.

She sighed as her mind wandered over her relationship with Brett, she wished so much that she had the courage to stand up to him years ago, but she had gotten scared when she realised what he had become and fled in fear of him. She couldn't help but allow the guilt to consume her when she thought about how she had played her part in all the women's deaths. Sure she hadn't been there but she inadvertently played a small part, and now it seemed that her brother had been introduced to some new friends, friends who influenced him, friends who seemed to be turning him into a bigger monster than she ever could have believed was capable of her own brother.

An image of the woman from the alley pulsated through her mind, she tightened her eyes trying to rid herself of the vision of what her brother was capable of. This was the fourth time in Summer Bay that she had contacted the police as an anonymous tipper about the girls her brother was killing, normally she kept her distance from the cops, not wanting to draw attention to herself, but from the first time she had witnessed the beauty that was the long legged cop she had not been unable to stay away.

Today however had almost gone a little pear shaped when the beautiful police woman had seen her and made her way to approach her, she was lucky the other cop called her and took her attention so she could flee. She sighed as she envisaged the beautiful face of the Senior, she had no idea what her name was, but she was Senior something, that's all the other cops called her.

She tried to shake her musings from her mind, she knew she needed to focus on finding her brother, she knew it was important and more lives depended on it, but she couldn't resist the images of the cop that constantly invaded her mind, she couldn't resist thinking about those beautiful blue eyes, long legs, curvy body in the uniform and the long dark brown hair that she always kept tied up whilst she worked, there was no doubt in Joey's mind that this Senior woman was the most gorgeous woman she had ever been blessed to lay eyes on.

She glanced out of the small window to her left and realised that the last rays of light were beginning to fade as the moon began to appear bringing with it a vast array of stars. She rose from her resting place realising she had been laid all day lost in her thoughts of Brett and the officer, the task she needed to complete and her own survival.

Rising from her bed she grabbed her beanie, pushing it over her long dark locks, grabbing her jacket she slung it on, patting the inner pocket, she felt the bulge of the gun and the cartridge she new held some spare silver bullets. Opening the door she stepped into the brisk night air, the smell instantly tingling her senses, the smell that evoked fear and hunger to rush through her, the smell that not only caused tiny jolts of horror to tingle down her spine but also caused her pulse to pitch slightly in excitement, to her that smell was her worst enemy, it caused her inner demons to raise the hair on the back of her neck yet also caused her to lick her lips, if there was one thing that Joey could smell most in the night air, it was the smell of blood and fear.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

**So thank you all so very much for all the reviews and kind word it made me want to write another chapter :)**

**Amelia Louisa: One fluffy little sharky comming your way one of these day :) ... my way to say thanks :)**

**Chapter two**

Joey walked along the board walk parallel to the beach, she glanced out across the sea admiring how the moonlight lightly kissed the ripples upon its surface, and how the silver tinge to the water instantly calmed her.

The sea had always had that effect on her, it always relaxed her, helped her to think better, helped her to gain a fresh perspective on whatever her problems may be. She had never fully understood her love of the ocean, she put it down to the old romance stories her mother had told her as a child of how her parents had met, and she remembered those stories as if her mother had only just told them moments ago.

Stories of how she was walking along the wharf having broken up with her high school sweetheart, she could admit in her stories that she had never loved the boy but she had cared about him, and although her heart was not broken she did feel a tinge of sadness that they had parted ways. She had gone to the wharf to get some breathing space before the hype with her friends started which she knew the moment they learnt of the break up they would.

That was when she saw him, the tall tanned man standing on the boat as he sipped at a flask. She stood rooted to the spot as she admired his muscular frame, his dark hair which lightly kissed at his shoulders, the beads of perspiration hanging to his brow. Noticing a figure from the corner of his eye he turned towards her, instantly struck by the beauty of the woman stood gazing at him.

She smiled towards him nervously, her heart pounding in her chest as the handsome stranger slowly approached her, the closer he came the more attracted she became to him, everything about him appealed to her, his unusual long hair, the slight stubble on his chin, the dirty marks; evidence of his hard labour. As he stepped closer to her she saw his eyes, instantly falling into them, the warm tone in them easing her, the sun colouring them a honey colour as she fell further into them.

Having just left school her mother had gotten a job on the trawler, her mother used to tell her such wonderful stories of the adventures they had together, the sunrises they saw, the wishes and plans they made upon the stars that hung happily in the sky as they packed up the boat and made their way to their days location.

Joey sighed as a slight breeze tickled against her face, running through her hair causing it to lift and tail behind her. She thought back to the beautiful cop, wondering if she would ever be able to fall in love, sure she had admired her from a far, but did she really trust herself to even begin to get to know the woman. She shook her head from her train of thought, it's not as if someone as beautiful as the Senior would ever be interested in her for any reason other than why she was at her crime scene.

Joey shuddered as her mind wandered to the tales her mother would tell her of how her and her brother had ended up like they were. Her mother had always been honest, never wanting to hide the truth from her babies as to who they were and why they were like it. The same tales that explained in some sense of the word why they had grown up without a father, she had never hidden the truth from her children wanting them to understand the importance of controlling themselves, the importance of not giving into their ultimate desires.

According to her mother's recollections, when she had discovered she was pregnant she had taken a leave of absence from the fishing industry, not wanting to harm the baby in any way with manual labour. The day before her new husband had been set to go on a long haul she had been informed she was pregnant with twins. She was told late on in her pregnancy, something to do with one child being larger than the other and so the bump hadn't been as big as it should have been, she had believed she was just one of those women who ended up massive through her pregnancy.

One night, completing her regular routine of checking the weather forecast so she knew the sea was calm enough to keep her love safe, she turned the television off, ready to head towards her bed, she was only a few weeks off being due and her body was constantly tired, as she reached the stairs and prepared herself for the long hike up them, she was disturbed by a frantic knock on the door.

She called out, unsure of whether to open the door or not, before deciding she wanted to know who could be standing on her door step at such a late hour, the man's voice sounded so frail and panicked as he informed her through the door that he had been in a terrible accident and his wife was trapped inside the car, begging her to allow him to use her phone to call for help.

Without a second thought she had unlocked the door, swinging it wide and pointing the man in the direction of the telephone, he brushed past her quickly in the direction. She closed the door to keep the cool night air outside, turning to check if the man was alright himself or whether he needed any medical assistance.

She had described the events in such close detail to Joey that the young girl almost believed she was there, she could see the events playing in her mind as she thought them over. She watched as her mother turned only to be startled by the man who a few moments ago was a quivering wreck pleading for some help now stood tall and proud directly in front of her, his face holding a calm expression that sent shivers down Joey's spine as she thought about how scared her mother must have been at that very moment.

The next thing her mother could recall was waking up with an irresistible craving and thirst for blood, wondering if it had been a nightmare teamed up with another crazy pregnancy urge she had risen from her bed, when she glanced in the mirror her own reflection had given her quite a scare, her normal tanned face was now pale, the veins she had never noticed before she could see faintly as small blue lines under her skin.

Thinking she was getting ill she had began to inspect herself for any other symptoms, spots, bruises, anything out of the ordinary and that was when she noticed them, the two puncture marks on her neck. At the sight of the small amount of her own dried blood matted around the puncture marks, she was overcome with a feeling of pure hunger and thirst, instead of the nauseous feeling she was expecting to override her. While looking in the mirror her reflection suddenly started to fade away.

After three weeks of feeding on raw meat from the butchers she had given birth to her twins, relived when her babies appeared like normal children, she was half expecting her urge for blood and flesh to disappear after the birth but the thirst and hunger was still there.

Two weeks after their father had returned, the moment her eyes fell on the man she loved she had felt the excitement rushing through her, she had ran towards him to envelope him in a hug, to kiss him and declare how much she had missed him, instead she found herself cradling his lifeless body, sobbing uncontrollably as she realised what she had done, stroking his pale broken face as the taste of his blood rushed around through her body.

Joey shook the images of her mother cradling her dead father in her arms from her head, not wanting to think that she herself could be capable of such an act, that she could just as easily forget who she was in the moment and take the life of anybody never mind somebody who she was deeply in love with.

She thought back to her teenage years, when she and her brother had began to change from the normal children they had grown up as, she thought about the first time she had the urge, trying to remember where she was and what she had been doing when the first taste of blood ran through her senses.

She had struggled with the information her mother had given them that day, but her brother was something else. She had ventured into the outside world, enjoying the feel of the sun kissing her pale skin lightly whereas her brother never ventured outside unless it was dark, much preferring the safety and comfort the night brought him.

Her mother, after experiencing her trauma, had researched into what had happened to her, trying to find answers to the questions that buzzed around her head, why she felt so ill going outside through the day but as soon as night fell she felt alive, when she had noticed the subtle differences between her children she had sat them down, explaining that it appeared Brett, like herself, was a vampire through and through, whereas Joey for some reason was what they called a Hybrid, a form of half human half vampire, she had the same urges as her brother and mother for the taste of blood but the urges seemed stronger in mother and brother than in herself.

She also had the ability to venture outside in the daylight without being affected, a thing the remainder of her family couldn't stand to do, the longer the vampire ran inside her mother and brother the harder it became for them to deal with sunlight until it reached the stage at which they were too fearful to even allow the sunlight to touch their skin in fear of what it would do to them.

Her mother had explained to the siblings that she believed their differences came from Brett being the larger of the two children, that he had taken the majority of the 'bite', when she was pregnant. Upon learning this opinion from his mother, Brett had become outraged, the anger filled him as the jealousy ran through his pale, thirsty body, jealousy that his sister had some sort of normality where as he had turned into a monster, each day his urge became stronger until he could no longer fight it.

It had started out as a simple argument, a typical teenage strop over the fact that he was something Joey wasn't or more importantly, Joey was something he wanted to be but couldn't, things had happened so fast as they stood in the dimly lit house, the curtains closed to block out the sunlight as the family lived what they deemed a normal life.

Joey shivered as she remembered watching her brother move with such speed towards their mother, pulling her head back, exposing her neck to him, without the slightest hesitation he had fed on her, draining the last of the small amount of blood she had running through her veins. As her mother's limp body fell to the floor, Joey had looked up into Brett's eyes, desperate to see some form of sorrow, the slightest compassion, when she saw nothing but hunger and rage she had ran, straight into the street.

She felt some sort of safety in the light of the sun as she glanced back at the home she had grown up in, the home that now held her dead mother and the brother that watched her angrily from behind the curtain which hitched ever so slightly to allow him to look out to his sister.

She remembered the look of hatred in his eyes as he stared out at her, she guessed that was why he always fed from the same types of women, all women that looked in some way like herself or her mother. She had always been told as a child that she was the spitting image of her mother and she had always known how enraged that had made her brother.

She was torn from her memories as a loud shriek filled the air, it was quickly followed by a unashamed cry for help. Turning towards the direction of the sound she watched as a young girl ran towards her, the girls face was full of fear as she ran from the two men chasing her. Joey instantly knew who they were, the fear and excitement that filled the air in an equal mix filled her senses.

She watched almost in slow motion as the young girl tripped, falling to the ground and hitting her head on the hard concrete. The two men slowed their pace, their laughter filling the air as they approached the still body on the ground.

As if a shock of electricity vaulted through her body Joey spun into action, knowing she could not leave the girl to her own defences. She moved as quickly as she could to position herself between the girl and the two men, to her it was a short run, had any mortal seen her move they would have barely seen the blur from where just a split second or so, she was stood.

She watched the men eye her suspiciously, opening her mouth she exposed her fangs, the moon highlighting their sharpness as it gazed down lazily upon the scene unfolded, she allowed the hiss to escape her lips as she glared at the two men who now was close enough, for her to confirm that they were two of Brett's lackeys who no doubt had been sent out to fetch Brett a new girl to feed from.

Her initial actions caused the two men to recoil, but upon seeing she was alone they smiled arrogantly and made to move towards her, with just as much speed as her run, Joey grabbed the young girl in her arms, raising her head and exposing her neck to her own mouth. She glared back at the guys.

"Leave her, the girl is mine" Joey's voice was unnerving even to herself, it held so much confidence and hunger that the two men recoiled once more, decided that a fight with this hungry women was something they couldn't be pestered with, they moved off into the night, assumably to find a new victim. Joey felt an urge to follow them and protect the poor soul they would pick on next time, but right now she had a young girl in her arms and she would do whatever it took to protect her from her brother's wrath.

She laid the young girl back on the floor gently, making sure her head contacted the concrete with the gentlest of touches. She grabbed the bag that lay strewn out across the path near her, placing the items back in the bag she saved the purse for last.

She opened the purse to search for some form of ID, finding a student library card she smiled triumphantly as she began to read the card of the young girl.

"Ruby Buckton, 6 James Street, Summer Bay, NSW 2495" Joey read out loud into the cool night air, she placed the purse in the back and lifted the long strap over her head, she knew just where the street was, which she was thankful for because she really didn't fancy carrying the girl around all night.

She knelt down beside the girl, admiring how pretty she was, she wasn't stunning, well not in the way that cop is, but she was definatly pretty, even with her seemingly unruly hair, she swallowed hard as she felt the girls pulse sound in her head, she could smell her blood, it smelt almost sweet to her, she knew if she gave in and allowed herself to try she would find her to taste delicious, but she wouldn't let herself, she had no intention of feeding from another person.

She lifted the girl easily into her arms, resting her heavy head against her shoulder, straightening her back she began to walk in the direction of James Street, the young girl almost weightless in her arms as she walked into the night air.

After walking past each house and inspecting the numbers on each door she found number six. She walked along the drive, careful not to bang into either of the cars parked there. She stepped up onto the balcony slowly so she didn't lose her footing and course the girl anymore damage.

Raising her right arm with the girl's legs, she used her elbow to press the button. Hoping the residents weren't already in bed, mere seconds later the door swung open, as Joey looked up she found herself staring into the two familiar pools of blue, her confidence instantly gone as her throat dried. She tried to will herself to speak but found herself unable as she stood dumbly in front of the beautiful cop she had admired for days now.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**

**First I would like to say that I'm from Denmark and English is not my first language, which means that both spelling and grammar mistakes will probably occur. I apologize for that in advance.**

**MissToastie: Thank you for your kind review. Hope you like this chapter.**

**Paulinemcc: You are right about one of your questions, but I'm not telling you which one.. lol.. you'll have to keep reading. :)**

**1818: Thank you hope you'll enjoy the next chapter. **

**AuthorW: Glad you like it. Hope you'll like this one to.**

**I'm burnin' : Here you go the next chapter :)**

**What comes around: If you like vampires then keep reading :)**

**Amelia Louisa: I'm writing my A** off for you.. wouldn't want to disappoint you.. hope you like :)**

**Before I let you all go I would like to tell you all to go read the new and fantastic story: All you need is love from Amelia Louisa, but wait until you have read this little chapter :)**

**Enjoy and keep the reviews comming.. love them :)**

**Chapter three**

Charlie groaned as the door bell sounded out throughout the house, she had just gotten changed and literally gotten into her bed, the sheets hadn't even warmed to her yet. With a frown she grabbed her silk robe, wondering who would be ringing the door bell at this time of night.

She hoped they would take the hint and leave quickly, she longed to catch up on her sleep, work had been crazy the past two weeks as she worked the murder cases, often working so much overtime that going home for a shower and to change her smelly, creased uniform for a fresh, clean smelling one, even to herself seemed a little pointless, it was getting to the stage where she was considering buying a wardrobe for her office and just keeping her clothes there instead.

As she opened the door she instantly fell into the dark brown eyes that gazed at her with an element of surprise. She could feel her heart beating wildly in her chest as she stood rooted to the spot staring into the eyes that seemed to pierce straight into her soul. She stumbled to find some words to say as she realised she stood staring at the brunette from her crime scene earlier that day.

"_Charlie"_ The voice was so frail that it barely penetrated Charlie's ears, but it did, Charlie's heart flipped when she realised the source of the voice, instantly tearing her eyes away from the beautiful stranger and allowing them to fall on her sister who lay broken in the young girl's arms.

"_Ruby! What the hell happened?__"_ Charlie's voice was full of panic as she gazed back up at the stranger hoping for an answer, instead of waiting for Ruby to provide one herself.

"_Ouch my head really hurts, please don't yell Charlie"_ Ruby groaned softly as she tried and failed to lift her head from the chest that was unknown to her, she tried to look up at her saviours face but the light from the ceiling stung her eyes and forced her to nuzzle her face back into the strangers chest instead.

With a sympathetic yet anxious smile Charlie edged away from the door, signalling with her hand for the stranger to enter the house, closing the door softly behind her and with worry followed her.

After her silent invite to enter the house by the beautiful woman, whom she figured due to Ruby's dazed comments was called Charlie, Joey stepped inside with Ruby in her arms, she smiled slightly as the young girl cuddled into her to block out the light of the room.

Charlie edged in front of her and led the way into the living room, without much attempt to stop herself, Joey admired the slender and beautiful body which was only concealed behind a silk robe as she followed her.

Laying Ruby carefully on the couch she stepped away, watching intently as Charlie sat down beside Ruby and checked the bump that was beginning to protrude from the younger girls head.

After noticing the wince her sister emitted upon her touch Charlie repeated her earlier question hoping to get an answer this time.

Ruby mumbled softly, most of it was incoherent but Charlie picked up on the gist of it. "_So scared... two guys... scary... chasing me... laughing... scary... trying to catch me... run as fast as I could... fell... hit my head... don't remember..." _She reached up her own hand to tentively feel the bump causing her so much discomfort, cringing once more as her fingers connected with it.

After realizing Ruby wasn't in as bad a shape as she had first thought, Charlie turned her attention to the stranger who stood watching her actions with her sister; she gazed at her with a tinge of confusion in her eyes, wondering how she fit into Ruby's rambled unsure tale.

The moment their eyes connected she felt herself falling into them once more, shaking herself before she forgot about the task in hand she asked her question again to the stranger who stood in her lounge.

Joey felt her throat dry slightly as she wondered what she should tell Charlie, allowing herself to only occasionally glance into the deep blue pools that stared inquisitively at her, awaiting her response, she cleared her throat and began to speak quietly.

"_Well ehh I saw two guys chasing her down the boardwalk by the beach, when she fell and hit her head on the concrete. I yelled out loud and ran towards her and the guys got scared and ran away I guess. I found her address in her purse and carried her home. Ehh I think she might have hit her head quite hard, she was out of it for a moment"_

While reeling of her story to Charlie she cursed herself for it being the best she could come up with on the spot, but she doubted Charlie would believe her had she confided the truth to her, so thought it best to tone the tale down slightly. She didn't want this beautiful woman thinking she was completely insane, she hoped that Ruby wouldn't remember any more of the details once her head had stopped hurting.

"_Oh my god, Rubes are you ok?"_ Charlie instantly turned her attention back to her sister, she felt herself pale as the panic rushed through her body. The only response she received was more incoherent mumbling that she could only assume was about her head hurting.

"_Right, I'm going to ring Rach and get her round to take a look at you"_ Charlie smoothed Ruby's hair careful not to touch the bump that began to look angrier by the minute.

She stood from the sofa, heading towards her bedroom to retrieve her mobile, suddenly stopping she turned to the stranger. _"Thank you so much for helping my sister, after I have called my friend I would like to talk to you about these guys, get their description from you so I can do a search on the police database for them, do you mind hanging around a little longer?"_ Charlie smiled softly, instantly realising she hadn't yet been introduced to the woman that had just saved her sister from god knows what _"I'm Charlie by the way, what's your name?"_

After a slight hesitation Joey found her voice _"Joey, I'm sure I can hang around a little while"_ She instantly felt the panic begin to rise inside her, she wasn't sure whether she could carry on her little white lie.

As Charlie left the room to grab her mobile Joey felt her panic intensify, she wasn't sure if she could look deep into the blue pools that were Charlie's eyes and lie straight to her face, sure she had just lied to her but that was slightly different, it was in the heat of the moment, what if the beautiful Charlie found out what Joey really was, what really happened, how would she react if she discovered Joey's secret, discovered what she was capable of and how closely she was linked to her sisters injuries and the deaths of the other women.

Without a second thought Joey spun on her heel, rushing back into the kitchen, swinging the door wide open she fled down the few steps onto the balcony and broke into a run, she allowed herself to force all her strength and stamina into the run, within seconds she found herself back at the beach, looking out at the moonlit waves once more as her mind screamed all kinds of thoughts.

She closed her eyes tightly, willing her mind to calm down, to think rationally and work out how she was going to get out of this mess she had found herself in.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**

**Hi thank you all for reading my story and reviewing. Love the reviews they make me want to write more.**

**Purplemonkeyys: read on and you'll find out :), but thanks for reading hope you'll like.**

**1818: only time will tell :)**

**Charmedcrazyn14: happy you like it and thank you for your kind words.**

**Jsco81: she might be or she might not be... time will tell.**

**Paulinemcc: if your disappointed that Joey ran, then I hope won't get to disappointed by the next couple of chapters... but all good things comes to those who wait... lol**

**AuthorW: Thank you for your review and I can't reveal if Charlie is going to search for Joey, such information is top secret.**

**Hope you all like the chapter... enjoy :)**

Chapter four

Charlie sat in her office lightly rubbing her fingers over her aching temples wishing her headache would go away, she looked at the pictures in her hand, pictures of the latest murder victim that had turned up that morning.

She had hardly slept the night before, she had spent the majority of the night tending to her sister and the remainder of every spare second thinking about the young girl she now knew as Joey. She couldn't work out why she had run when only minutes earlier she had confirmed she would stay and give her a description of the two guys that had tried to assault her sister.

Placing the cup to her mouth groaning in satisfaction as the hot liquid filled her mouth, easing her throat as the coffee slid down it. She leant back in her chair as she hugged the cup in her hands, enjoying the warmth it provided as her mind rushed back to the previous night once more.

She had returned from her room having called Rachel and informed her of what she knew had happened to Ruby, returning to the lounge to see a dozing Ruby laid on the couch in an empty room. Looking around she called out for Joey, when there was no response she checked the kitchen for her, noticing the door still ajar she stepped outside wondering if the beautiful stranger had simply stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, but was sad to find the garden empty, once more the woman had disappeared on her.

Rachel had turned up a little over five minutes later, lugging her heavy bag full of doctors tools and potions with her, she patted Charlie on her shoulder with her spare hand as she passed her and made her way directly to Ruby's side to begin checking her over.

She spoke to her softly, trying to gain knowledge of how coherent she was, how responsive and alert she was. She examined the bump on her head, noticing the bruising that surrounded it, making it look much worse than it really was. Checking her pupils for dilation she lifted her finger, asking Ruby to follow it and focus on it as she moved it this way and that, drawing it closer to her face before pulling it back towards herself.

Once more she lifted her hand, closing her pinky and ring finger; she left stood her middle and index finger and her thumb. She asked Ruby calmly to tell her how many fingers she had raised and smiled with a soft laugh as Ruby informed her that there were two fingers and a thumb instead of her expected three fingers answer.

Rachel rose from the floor with a smile, she turned to find Charlie hovering behind her waiting expectantly.

"She's fine Charlie, that bumps probably going to give her a bit of a headache for the next few days but it's nothing that two aspirin won't fix, keep an eye on her through the night and if anything changes give me a call, there is a small chance she has a concussion, what with her passing out totally, but it's nothing to worry too much about, just keep an eye on her, keep her full of liquids and give her the daily doses of aspirin till the headache fades" Rachel smiled at the taller Buckton.

After turning down Charlie's offer of a coffee, Rachel had left to allow Charlie and Ruby some peace. Charlie had carried her sister to bed, wondering how Joey had managed to carry her for so long without breaking a sweat, she wasn't exactly the lightest of things to carry.

Charlie had slept in Ruby's bed, so if she had needed her she was at hand, Ruby had woken several times throughout the night, each time she was mumbling in her sleep, whimpering and wincing in pain. Charlie had stroked her hair, soothing her back to sleep, but each time Ruby had mentioned a word which peaked Charlie's interest, Ruby had kept muttering the word vampire, shaking her musings Charlie had put it down to Ruby's recent favourite film 'Twilight' mixed with being spooked by the guys from earlier on in the night.

She ignored the small voice that echoed annoyingly in the back of her mind, telling her that there was more to Ruby's mutterings, the thought alone sent jolts of fear through her body. Telling herself that she was being ridiculous through her exhaustion she relaxed back against the pillows and tried to fall asleep, trying to force the images of Joey from her mind as she slipped in and out of a restless slumber.

That morning she had woken up and wanting to make breakfast for Ruby and herself, hoping the gesture would cheer Ruby up slightly, she was surprised to find Leah already in the kitchen working hard at preparing her favourite meal of the day for her house mates.

Leah had not yet gotten home from her date when Ruby was brought home the night before, VJ had slept at his friends house leaving Charlie relieved of babysitting duty after a long day at work.

"You look tired, tough night?" Leah commented as she smiled at her friend over her shoulder, handing her a freshly brewed coffee.

Charlie had explained to Leah the happenings of the night before in as much detail as she knew, just as she finished up and took a sip from her mug, Ruby entered the kitchen, her hands clinging to her head in some kind of defence from the headache she complained about.

Charlie had been adamant she was taking a day off, she was owed plenty from all the over time she had put in but once receiving a call from the station informing her of a fifth victim, Ruby had ordered her to go to work and make the streets safe again. She could sense the call was important when she saw Charlie's face as she spoke on the phone. She wondered what was going on at the station since Charlie had all this over time, she hadn't heard anything about any crime being committed in the bay recently.

After a lot of persuasion and a promise from Leah that she would sit by Ruby's side at her beck and call, Charlie gotten changed for her shift. She entered the lounge to find Ruby resting on the couch covered by her quilt nursing her head.

"Ruby, why were you alone last night, I thought you were out with Xav" Charlie asked softly as she handed Ruby a box of aspirin and lifted her glass of water closer to her. After swallowing the tablets Ruby glanced at Charlie with sad sorrowful eyes.

"I had a fight with Xav, I got so frustrated at him I walked off and left him, I thought the walk home would calm me down a bit" Ruby admitted ashamed.

"Ruby it's ok, you couldn't have known what was going to happen, just please be more careful in the future, ring me next time and I will pick you up, it's better than being knocked out and attacked" Charlie smiled softly, kissing her sister on the brow she rose from her perch on the couch and left for work.

Charlie mentally shook herself from her musing, forcing her thoughts back onto the case. The crime scene was identical to the other four, she scanned the pictures for any kind of evidence, there had to be something, the scenes were cleared, it were almost as if the bodies had been planted there after the murders, the only thing contesting this theory was the signs of the victims struggles, that and there was no post mortem bruises that suggested they had been moved after their deaths.

She sighed as she glanced at the woman, noticing she once again fit in with the description, she couldn't understand why they couldn't get a break with this case, they were in exactly the same position they were in two weeks ago only now they had more bodies piling up in the morgue. Rising from her chair she decided to see if Watson had found any ID in the victim's personal defects.

As she approached Watson's desk she noticed the smile playing on her lips as she returned the phone to its cradle.

"Good news I hope?" Charlie asked hoping for a reason to smile herself.

"Yeah, I found out who our latest victim is, Amy smith, she is 24 years old and she is a British citizen, they found a key at the crime scene for one of the trailers at the caravan park. She must have been staying there" Watson smiled at her superior, hoping she would be glad that the latest victim at least had a name and her family could be informed, it wasn't much to be happy about but at least she wasn't a Jane Doe.

"Brilliant, good work Watson, why don't you join me, we will go to the trailer and see what else we can find out about this girl, there could be something to break this case wide open" Charlie smiled faintly, her voice full of hope.

Charlie popped into her office, grabbing her coat and her keys she exited again to find Watson stood at the door waiting patiently, desperate to help solve this case and stop innocent women being murdered


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**

**Thank you all so much for your kind reviews; they make me want to continue writing on this story.**

**I would like to dedicate this chapter to a friend, who was my inspiration for this chapter.**

**Enjoy!!**

Chapter five

As the squad car pulled up just outside the main house inside the caravan park, Charlie and Watson got out and began looking around for Miles. After helping him search for Melody a while ago when she had disappeared to the city, they had become good friends. Miles' new relationship with Leah only improved that as she found herself spending more and more time with him.

He was a good guy, always had a big heart and always trying to help others in any way he could, she felt a little sorry for him, he hadn't had the best past.

A few years ago he had lost his entire family in the tsunami, a little while after that he had returned to the bay and had been reunited with his long lost twin sister, the one and only Sally Fletcher. After a rocky relationship with Kirsty he had discovered that she had been cheating on him with the stations janitor, Hugo, a lazy man who had problems dealing with authority, especially female authority.

She couldn't help but feel a little glad that Kirsty had cheated, she never was good enough for him in the first place, what with that and the fact that she knew her close friend had almost secretly held a flame for him for a long time, it was one of those bad things that had to happen in order for a wonderful opportunity to arise, that seemed to sum his life up.

After a few minutes searching they had eventually spotted him working on one of the trailers, obviously trying to get it repaired and liveable in again quickly. Upon hearing Charlie calling out his name he spun around with a mixture of surprise and happiness to be in company of his friend, however when he saw the concern written all over the tall brunettes face, his smile was replaced with concern.

"Hey Charlie, what can I do for Summer Bay's finest?"

"Hey, sorry to interrupt you when you're busy" I was wondering if you could take a look at a picture, we have reason to believe that she has been staying here" Charlie asked sweetly as he jumped down from his ladder and rubbed the grease from his hands onto his jeans.

"Sure, anything to help the law" He smiled as he waited for the photo to be produced.

Watson handed him a picture concealed in a case folder, it was taken earlier that morning by the coroner and showed the victim laid on the coroners table, it only showed her face but the pale complexion and blue lips instantly gave away that she was dead.

Charlie watched his expressions closely, a trait she had picked up from the city upon dealing with so many murders and missing person's cases after she had passed out from the academy, she watched as his face fell, the smile that had just moments ago filled his features was replaced with a sorrowful frown.

"Sure, she's been staying here, her name is Amy something, she's been here about two weeks with her girlfriend Helga Borg" Miles reported sadly, his heart instantly going out to the dead girls partner.

"I can't believe she's dead, I talked to her just yesterday afternoon, she was telling me about going out with her girlfriend for their first anniversary, she was so excited" Miles added sadly, his mind jumping into overload as he tried to imagine what had happened to the sweet girl he had spoken to on a number of occasions.

"Thanks Miles, can you remember which trailer she was staying in, we could really do with taking a look around" Charlie smiled as she rubbed her hand soothingly over his arm, she knew when she was in uniform she was supposed to act accordingly, but she couldn't resist from comforting her visibly shaken friend.

"Yeah she is staying… sorry was staying in trailer nine, last trailer on the right, I'm sure I saw her girlfriend there this morning, she looked a little stressed, maybe this explains it" He glanced at Charlie thankful for her comfort.

"One more question, then we will let you get back to your repairs" Charlie smiled sweetly at him.

"Have you noticed anything odd around lately, anything out of the ordinary or a little strange?"

"Not anything I can think of, sorry… if I think of anything I'll let you know straight away" He smiled warmly at her, hoping that he had helped in some way.

Retrieving the photo from him, they waved him farewell before making their way to the trailer. Watson read over the notes she had taken whilst Miles had been recounting his last spotting of Amy.

"I wonder if this Helga could shed some light on what happened" Georgie asked thoughtfully as she glanced to Charlie.

"Yeah I really hope so, this is it, trailer nine" Charlie stated as she approached the door and rapped loudly on it three times.

"Amy is that you? Finally your home, what happened to you? I've been worried sick all night" The door swung open to reveal a stressed looking woman, she must have been in her mid twenties Charlie guessed. She stood in a pair of baggy cargo pants and a loose black tee, her long blonde hair left loose to flow down her back casually.

The woman frowned when she realised it wasn't her partner at the door, but the police, a stream of panic began to flow through her body as her mind boggled over what the police could be knocking on her door.

"Does this have something to do with my Amy; do you know where she is?" The woman asked in a frenzy.

Charlie let out an audible sigh, she had seen the transformation so many times in her career, the transformation from joy to disbelief and finally to grief, it was the only part of her job that she actually hated, the only part of her job that she wished she could avoid, she would take days of paperwork and filing if it meant she could avoid being the bearer of bad news, she didn't think she would ever become accustomed to it.

"May we come inside?" Charlie asked softly to the young girl, who instantly moved to the side to allow them entrance, Charlie threw a look at Watson who nodded solemnly towards her, instantly understanding that the look meant, here we go again.

The girl motioned for them to sit and sat herself across from them on the bench chair, she could feel herself trembling as she awaited the words from the officers, and she knew what was coming but a part of her prayed that it wouldn't, that it was some kind of mean joke that was being played on her.

"My name is Senior Constable Buckton and this is Constable Watson" Charlie introduced trying to drag out the inevitable, she knew it wasn't fair to the young woman sat opposite her but she needed a few moments herself to prepare giving the woman the worst news she would ever receive.

Charlie glanced into the sad blue eyes staring back at her hopefully, she learned forward slightly taking the girls hand in her own, she could feel the tremble immediately, she could feel the cool hands begin to sweat as she awaited the news.

"I'm sorry to have to ask, but I need you to confirm the surname of your partner" Charlie asked softly, taking a hard swallow as she knew the moment was drawing closer when she would have to break the news to the woman before her. She hated having to ask obvious questions but it was important she asked, there was nothing worse than informing someone that the person they loved was dead only to discover it was a case of mistaken identity.

"Smith, her name is Smith, have you found her, is she ok?" The woman asked hopefully, her throat ached as she spoke from fighting back the tears that threatened to flow.

Charlie glanced nervously to Watson before returning her attention to the blonde woman who sat hanging on her every word.

"I'm very sorry to inform you that Amy Smith was found dead this morning," Charlie stumbled, she watched as each word appeared to slap the woman in the face, causing her features to distort in pain.

"No…. no it can't be true, please tell me this is some kind of mistake" Helga sobbed as she pulled her spare hand to her face and covered her mouth with it, her tears flowed angrily and painfully down her cheeks.

"I'm so very sorry for your loss, if it would be ok I would like to show you a photo, just to gain a positive identity on her body, would that be ok Miss Borg?" Charlie asked carefully, not wanting to upset or distress the woman any further, she watched as she nodded her head sadly.

"Watson reached into her pocket and handed her the photo, she gasped painfully as she reached her fingers out, running them slowly over the face on the photo.

"I can't believe she's gone… this is her… this is my Amy" Helga sobbed.

"I'm sorry that you had to witness that, it must have been quite unpleasant but I'm sure you appreciate that we need to make positive identification, please accept my deepest apologies" Watson soothed as she watched the woman before her cry harder.

"What happened to her, who did this to her" Her voice was a mixture of pain, anger and disgust as she almost spat the words out, part of her needing to know the answers to ease her mind, the other half of her too scared to learn the answers.

"I'm sorry but we don't know the answer to that yet" Charlie murmured sadly, she could almost feel the girls pain herself, she couldn't even begin to imagine what was going through her mind at that moment.

"I know now probably isn't the best time, so please feel free to say no, but would you mind if we asked you a few questions, it could really help with our investigation and help us to catch whoever did this to Amy" Charlie asked hopefully, the girl just nodded sadly.

"Ok, If you want or need to stop at any time just say the word… " Charlie was interrupted as the girl appeared to just fall forward, she jumped back in shock as she watched her fall, Watson on the other hand saw it coming, leaping forward and grabbing her before she hit the floor.

Taking her radio in confusion, Charlie called for an ambulance as she watched Watson lay her on the bench seat she had moments ago just been sat on. They watched silently as the girl lay motionless, after checking her vitals, they settled for just waiting for the ambulance, it was obvious that the distress had finally hit her and caused her to pass out.

As they followed the paramedics pushing the stretcher towards the back of the ambulance, watching on helplessly as they lifted her in, Charlie glanced away for a moment, her breath catching in her throat as she saw the familiar figure walking towards a different trailer, her heart rate increased quickly as she watched on in confusion and awe.

She noticed that the girl seemed to have the same effect on her each time she saw her, she felt like running over towards her and checking that it wasn't just her mind playing tricks on her, she hadn't expected to ever see her again after she had just disappeared like that.

Watson cleared her throat once more, drawing Charlie from her thoughts.

"Senior, would you like to accompany Helga to the hospital and I will follow on in the car?" Watson asked kindly, noticing the distress on Charlie's face, as if in a trance Charlie nodded and handed her keys over before climbing into the back of the ambulance.

***************************

Sitting outside the examination room of the hospital Charlie allowed her thoughts to run over the girl she had caught glimpse of so many times now, there was just something about this girl, she couldn't place her finger on it but every time she saw or spoke to her, her heart beat seemed to race.

She made a mental note, now that she knew where she lived, to visit her, she wanted to thank her properly for helping Ruby and she wouldn't mind finding out why she had ran the night before.

Watson dumped her weight on the chair beside her, passing her a cup of coffee, well it looked like some resemblance coffee, it smelt something like coffee, and she doubted though that it would taste anything at all like coffee.

"Penny for your thoughts Senior?" Watson smiled towards her, Charlie's on duty name and taken quickly.

"What, sorry?" Charlie asked dazed, turning her full attention to her friend and partner.

"You just seem miles away, anywhere nice?" Watson grinned wondering if she had met someone.

Charlie was just about to answer when she noticed Rachel in the corner of her eye, she jumped from her chair almost spilling her 'coffee' all over herself, Watson followed a little slower, both awaiting Rachel's news.

"How is she doing, can we speak to her?" Charlie asked her voice full of concern.

"I'm afraid not, she was in quite a lot of distress so I gave her a sleeping tablet to help her rest for the night, maybe tomorrow though?" Rachel suggested.

Charlie nodded in disappointment; she had hoped to get some answers to all her questions, hoping they would provide a lead to their murder enquiries. She lightened up a little, at least the girl was safe and in good hands, she could wait another few hours to get her answers after all.

"Ok, I'll be back in the morning, thanks Rach" Charlie smiled warmly receiving one in return.

As they left the hospital and headed back towards the station, both officers were silent, lost in their thoughts, hoping that the night wouldn't bring them yet another victim.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**

**Thank you all so much for the reviews, they really do encourage me to write more... so please keep reviewing :)**

**I would like to dedicate this chapter to Amelia Louisa, who had been my inspiration for the last couple of chapters... A.L hope you like having a hot cop investigating your case ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter six**

After another restless night's sleep, Charlie found herself waiting outside the hospital room once more as she patiently awaited Rachel to allow her in to see the patient.

The case was running through her mind once more, it seemed to be the only thing she thought of these days, obviously not including Ruby and Joey, whom she still could not understand why she couldn't get her out of her head. She sighed at the thought of her little sister being attacked by the beach not far from where Amy's body had been found, the thought of how close Ruby had possibly come to death, sent a jolt of shivers throughout her body.

Her mind wandered towards Joey, she mulled over asking her over for dinner as some kind of thanks for helping Ruby out, after a short discussion the previous night after her shift, she knew that Ruby would want to meet her and thank her properly as well.

"Morning Charlie" a voice drew Charlie out of her thoughts, looking up she saw Rachel approaching her with a slight smile.

"How is she today" Charlie asked returning her smile and glancing towards the room that she knew held the Swedish woman.

"She is awake and she is ready to talk to you, but she is still shook up about the whole thing so please be gentle with her" Rachel replied, her smile faltering slightly as a serious tone covered it, Charlie simply nodded and turned to walk into the room.

"Charlie I'll be right out here if you need me" Rachel smiled before Charlie closed the door, moving over to the nurses' station she began to flick through some files, determined to organise them before she finished her shift and left for the day.

Inside the hospital room Charlie's eyes fell upon the young girl laying on her bed staring out the window almost painfully. Her red and puffy eyes giving away the fact that she had recently been crying. Charlie noticed the pained expression on her face, her eyes filled with sorrow and grief.

Charlie cleared her throat to make the almost hollow girl aware of her presence "Hey, how are you today" she asked, knowing that it was a stupid question but feeling obliged to ask.

"Fine... well not really" she replied back to Charlie without even turning to look at her, it was almost an automated response.

"I'm so sorry for your loss" it was all Charlie could think to say, there was much more she wanted to say but she knew while she was in uniform she had to be the professional, and it wasn't as if she even knew the girl before yesterday. She moved towards the chair besides the bed, sitting down she settled for watching the broken girl before her, allowing her a few more moments of peace before she was forced to relive yesterday once more.

"Helga I need to ask you a few questions about Amy... I know it is hard... but it could help us find out what happen to her... are you up for it" she asked while looking at the girls blue eyes noticing that the sparkle that had been there when she met her for the first time yesterday still hadn't returned after she had informed her of Amy's death.

"okay if it would help you find out what happen to Amy"She nodded solemnly as her voice almost croaked, it was obvious to Charlie that she was fighting back her tears, trying to be strong to help find whoever had done this to her lover.

"Helga why was Amy down at the beach all by herself at night... where were you?" Charlie started hoping that her line of questioning wouldn't cause the young woman to start blaming herself for the death, she waited patiently whilst Helga visibly prepared herself to talk, she sighed almost painfully as the visions flashed in her mind of the previous evening.

"I was back at the trailer. We had a small picnic on the beach to celebrate our first anniversary, after that we went to the surf club to have a couple of drinks, we played a few games of pool and then went back to the van, we were… we…."she stopped talking and looked away from Charlie, fresh tears rolled unashamed across her face.

"It's ok Helga, take your time"Charlie soothed gently whilst reaching for the girls hand to calm her.

"We made love" Helga sniffed sadly as she realised it had been the last time she would ever make love to the woman who owned her heart, she finally turned her gaze to Charlie and continued

"I was tired I just wanted to sleep after wards, but Amy… she's a night owl she couldn't sleep so she told me she would take a walk along the beach... she had always been fascinated by the beach and the water... it was one of the reasons we came here on our trip... she wanted to go diving... her dream was to dive amongst sharks... I was scared about it... I kept telling her she was crazy asking her if she couldn't do with just diving down watching the reefs and other fishes... but she'd just laugh at me telling me that I was such a scaredy cat and that sharks were friendly creatures that didn't like the taste of humans" She couldn't help but laugh a little remembering when Amy went on a ramble on about sharks. She always had this serious but dreamy look on her face when she was rambling away about sharks. She had always thought she looked so cute with that expression, it made her heart melt.

"How long have you been here?_"_ Charlie asked cutting Helga from her happy thoughts, causing her soft smile to quickly darken.

"We have been here at the bay for about 10 days now, but we have been in Australia for about 2 months just backpacking around seeing the country. We were supposed to be staying here for six months and then after that see where the wind blew... It was a big dream of both of us to see Australia so we quickly decided in our relationship to save up and come here.... It was actually one of the first things we talked about when we first met. I thought she was so cute going on and on about her dream to go travelling the world and going diving" She cast her mind back sadly to when they had first met, She had fallen head over heels in love with Amy at first sight, before Amy she hadn't believed in such things, but the moment their eyes had met across the room, she had fallen for her.

The first time she had looked in her coconut coloured eyes she had just melted, after their first date they were madly in love with each other. They just seemed to click right away and were inseparable after that date. Their friends used to call them the Siamese lesbians, Oh god she missed Amy. She felt so empty without her. She couldn't believe she was never again going to feel herself wrapped tightly in her arms or kiss her lips. She felt her body lost its battle to stay strong as the tears flowed almost angrily, her body heaving with the sobs that wracked throughout her.

Charlie watched the girl break before her eyes, all the pain and misery surfacing and showing so raw on her features, she felt horrible for being part of the reason for the cause of her pain. With her hand still almost pointlessly soothing Helga's hand, she rang the buzzer, hoping that Rachel would be able to do something to take at least a little of her pain away.

With almost as much speed as superman, Rachel ran into the room, noticing the pain and turmoil the young girl was in, she called out to Julie to fetch a sedative, within moments the sedative had been injected. Charlie watched as Helga's sobs and pain filled cries became weaker and less often, until finally her eyes slid shut, her breathing calmed and Rachel announced that she had fallen asleep.

In her squad car, Charlie headed towards the station a little disheartened, her heart really went out to Helga, she wished there was something more she could do for her, but without any leads or breaks, there was no chance they were going to be able to catch the killer and bring them the justice they deserved.

She had hoped to gain some information from Helga that would help the case, even the tiniest piece of information could quickly turn into a lead which could make or break the case. Unfortunately, everything that Helga had provided her with had been of no use to the case.

Changing her course, she headed for the Diner, desperate to get a coffee fix. She stood besides the fencing, nursing the hot cardboard cup in her hands, appreciative of the warmth and comfort it provided.

Lifting it to her mouth, she gingerly sipped it, savouring in the flavour, wincing slightly as it began to burn her tongue. She lowered the cup and glanced out over the ocean, she always seemed to think better when she looked out over the ocean, as if with each fresh tide it brought her some clarity to her thoughts, or the cool breeze that rushed from the ocean blew the muddled thoughts from her mind leaving her to concentrate on what she needed to.

The murders were becoming harder to hide from the public, they either needed to break the case wide open quickly, otherwise everyone in town was going to go into that frenzied panic mode. Her mind quickly ran back to what had happened to Ruby, which quickly followed as usual to thinking about Joey, she repeated the name a few times over in her mind. Tossing the coffee in the nearest bin she headed towards the car, her mind was made and she intended to follow it.

*************************

Inside her trailer, Joey was trying to read a magazine but her mind kept wandering to her brother's latest victim, she had found her beside the beach not long after she had fled from Charlie's house. The girl had looked so much like her, her hair was roughly the same length that she had kept since she was a teen, the eyes a slightly brighter shade of brown; she even had the same cheek bones and chin.

After she had ran from Charlie's, she had found herself back at the beach. As the sun started rising, she had realised that she had been sitting at the beach almost all night, lost in her own thoughts. When she had stood to get up a familiar sent had reached her nose. She could smell it, smell the fresh blood in the air, instantly knowing what that smell meant, she had made her way towards its source, following the smell as it intensified.

By the time she had found the girl, it was too late, with a sorrow and feeling of helplessness she stood for a moment watching the girls still form, turning away in disgust, she made her way to the payphone, phoning in her usual anonymous tip off.

She hadn't stuck around though this time, she was too scared of bumping in to Charlie, she felt scared about the feelings and emotions that coursed through her at just the thought of her name, it was an unfamiliar feeling to her, she had never felt anything like it before in her life, and that scared her.

The name resounded in her head, she felt the butterflies wake up within her stomach as she repeated the name, enjoying the fluttering and the tingles the butterflies brought to her. She loved how the name sounded on her lips, how just saying the name made her feel, with a slight smile she opened her lips and mouthed the name, "Charlie".

The soft yet loud knock ripped her from her musing, feeling herself blush a little as she realised that she had been indulging herself in the feelings the tall woman provided her. Shaking her head to free her thoughts she rose from the bed, allowing the magazine to fall unceremoniously to the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**

**Thank you so much for your reviews.**

**I decided to post this next chapter for ****drag queen princess sparkle… hope you like it sparkle ;)**

**It is a long chapter, but I hope you all like it. And please do review, it makes me feel like what I write is worth my while.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter seven**

Holding the handle softly Joey pulled the door open slowly, wondering who would be visiting her, it wasn't as if she knew anyone in town, especially no one that would want to visit her, she quickly wondered if it would be Miles coming to check up on her, making sure she was enjoying her stay, he had done that a few times so far, just checking in with her, suggesting places to go or try like the surf club or the Diner.

The door fully opened allowing Joey a glimpse at who had come knocking, she almost gasped when she saw the female form standing before her, the long hair blowing softly as the wind caught it, lifting it from her shoulders, the smile illuminating her facial features.

"Hi, I don't know if you remember me or not, I'm the girl you saved the other night" Ruby grinned happily that she had caught Joey in the trailer, Ever since Charlie had let slip that morning that Joey was living in the trailer park she had mulled over visiting her to thank her properly. After a boring morning at school she had spent a lot of time thinking it over in her mind, when the bell had rung signalling the beginning of her free period which rolled into her lunch break, she had decided to just pop round on the off chance she would be in and invite her to lunch to show her appreciation.

Joey was completely frozen as she looked out at the younger girl she now knew as Charlie's sister, Ruby. Her mind suddenly began to run, a thousand questions rushing around her mind, questions like 'how did she know where I lived?' and 'does Charlie also know I live here too?

She suddenly began to panic at the thought of Charlie turning up on her doorstep too, there was a slight tinge of excitement at the prospect but the panic outweighed it at that moment, she suddenly realised the girl was speaking, she forced herself to listen to the girl not wanting to sound like some kind of social cripple.

"Yeah, sure I remember you, how are you feeling now?" Joey replied, glad when she had forced herself to pay attention so when the question came she wasn't stood speechless. She involuntarily found herself subtly searching behind the young girl, searching to see if Charlie was with her, she felt the pangs of disappointment wash over her when she saw that Ruby had come alone.

She couldn't understand why she was so disappointed, it wasn't as if she was expecting Charlie to come and find her, she didn't even want her to find her so why was she feeling so disappointed that she wasn't there, she shook her head, freeing her mind from the same thoughts that confused her daily since Charlie had entered her world.

"I'm fine… well besides this ugly thing" Ruby smiled cheekily as she pointed to the large bump on her head that was highlighted by some angry looking bruises.

"I'm Ruby by the way" She grinned again as she held her hand out expectantly to her hero.

"Joey, glad you're ok… well obviously except the little bump you've got there" she smiled awkwardly as she took Ruby's hand, shaking it firmly.

"So… I was thinking I would come round and ask you to come to lunch with me at the diner as my way to say thank you for your help" Ruby suddenly became nervous as she waited the answer, noticing how cold Joey's hand felt inside her own, realising she was still clutching the hand she pulled it away, trying to cover the slight blush that rushed to her cheeks.

Joey was completely taken back, she hadn't at all expected to be asked for lunch in thanks, she had never even been asked to lunch period, not since she was a normal kid at school who ate from her packed lunch with her friends.

"I dunno… I mean… well I'm a little busy… I'm supposed to…" Joey stumbled trying to decide whether to make an excuse or just allow the girl to show her gratitude to her.

"Come on Jo… It's just lunch, it's not like I'm asking you out on a date, come on its only at the Diner and I'm shouting" Ruby forced Joey to take in her pleading eyes, her lower lip pouting slightly, the same look she would give Charlie when she wanted something to go her own way, it never failed then either.

Joey couldn't control the grin that spread across her face when she saw the look Ruby was giving her, she wondered quickly how many times the young girl had used that face on Charlie, and how many times Charlie had succumbed to it as well.

"Well I guess if you put it like that… I mean I can't really refuse can I? let's go" She turned back to grab her keys, locking the door she followed Ruby who was walking slowly backwards, grinning at her mischievously, she wondered if she was silently celebrating her win over changing her mind.

"Mind if we walk along the beach?" Ruby asked as Joey pulled alongside her and fell into step.

"No, not at all, sounds nice" Joey smiled nervously back at her, her grin spreading when she saw the rush of excitement rush across the youngsters face.

*********************************

Pulling into the same spot as she had the day before, Charlie stepped out of the car and forced a deep breath, she could feel the butterflies fluttering excitably inside her fighting for control of her body over her nerves. She didn't know why she was feeling quite so nervous, she hardly even knew the girl.

She felt the fluttering of the butterflies increase with each step she took towards Joey's trailer, she swallowed hard, forcing the lump that had formed in her throat down as she stretched out her hand, allowing it to knock on the door.

She waited for a few moments, feeling a little sad that Joey had not rushed to the door to let her in and chat, she drew in a breath as she stepped closer, listening intently inside, trying to assess whether the van was occupied or not, she knocked again a little harder, waiting a few more moments in vain hope that Joey was home.

With a heavy sigh, she felt the disappointment flood through her, she began her walk back to the car, her mood dampened at having to return to the station without seeing Joey, not only that but she knew another long day was still ahead of her, She was determined to get some kind of break on this case, she really needed to break it open so she could get back to normal life, to a normal routine.

She rubbed her eyes as she dumped her body inside the car, wiping the tiredness from her eyes. The confusion from Joey was beginning to take its toll as well as the struggles with the case she had, with another heavy sigh she turned the key in the ignition, pulling away slowly from the main house and past the trailers onto the main road.

***************************

The walk along the beach was enjoyable for both women, they spoke about trivial things to begin with, commenting on the weather or how calm the sea seemed today before Joey had asked about Ruby's love life.

Ruby had spent the remainder of the walk telling Joey all about her boyfriend Xavier, telling her about school and all the gossip that was going on, just before they reached the Diner she had given Joey the rundown on the main characters of Summer Bay and their roles within the community.

Joey tried her hardest not to talk too much about herself, only giving away snippets of information when it was necessary or asked for, she was too scared of what would happen if she accidentally slipped who she was into conversation, the same reason she had never before allowed herself to have any friends, but for some unknown reason, Joey felt pulled towards Ruby, not in the same force as to Charlie, but she still felt she was being pulled towards her.

Once inside the Diner, they had found a booth and sat looking over the menu as they deliberated over what they fancied for lunch, Joey couldn't help but feel thankful that she hadn't suffered the same fate as her mother and brother, who could only feed on blood.

She was still able to enjoy real food, still able to browse over a menu and wonder which would taste better the lasagne or the club salad, there were still moments when her urges become so strong that she felt the need to taste raw meat or blood, but on those few and far between occasions she fed from animals, trying to buy supplies from the butchers when possible.

She could never feed from a human, she had seen what the consequences of her brother's mayhem and thirst for human blood caused. She knew of the grief and sorrow her brother's need caused, the pain and horror that his feeding habits provided the world with. She would never allow herself to be part of the cause of that suffering.

"So, do you know what you're having?" Ruby grinned as she put her menu down on the table, looking at Joey expectantly.

"I'm going to go for the lasagne and a soda" Ruby added when Joey hadn't spoken for a few seconds.

"Yeah, that actually sounds delicious, I think I'll go for that too" Joey smiled back at her almost affectionately at her new friend.

"Cool, well I'll go and let Leah know and then I'll be right back, give me two minutes" Ruby smiled at Joey as she stood and made her way towards the counter, waiting while Leah finished up settling the bill with a customer.

"Hey Leah, can I get two lasagnes and two medium sprite's please?" Ruby returned Leah's smile.

"Of course, how's the head feeling?" Leah asked worriedly as she glanced at the bruise and bump on Ruby's head.

"Yeah not too bad" Ruby grinned at her, she had to admit she loved all the sympathy she was receiving.

"So… who's your friend, I haven't really seen her around much, is she new to the area?" Leah asked in hope she could gain some gossip from her flat mate, she hated to admit it but she could feel herself turning into colleen.

"Oh that's Joey, she's the one who rescued me the other night, thought I would bring her to the best establishment in town and treat her to lunch… you know… just to say thanks" Ruby smiled hopefully at Leah, who rolled her eyes knowing that Ruby's compliment was in hope of a slightly larger portion than the other customers received.

"Oh right, so that's the girl Charlie was telling me about… well why don't you go and sit down and I'll bring your food over when its ready" Leah smiled over at the new girl as she handed Ruby the drinks, she was thinking that when she brought them their food she should thank her as well for taking care of the young girl she had become so fond of, she felt a little upset when she thought of what could have happened to sweet, funny Ruby had Joey not been there to help her.

Ruby had returned to the table, picking up her earlier conversation of the residents of summer bay, pointing out people and explaining who they were and what they did, dropping in little bits of gossip as she went along, she had just finished telling an amused Joey all about Colleen Smart and her gossip queen title, describing to her some of the more likely comments she would be sure to hear before she left the bay, when Leah approached the table carrying two hot plates.

"Here you go girls, two lasagnes, I hope you're hungry" Leah smiled at Ruby whose eyes widened in glee when she saw the sheer size of the lasagne sitting on her own plate.

"Thanks Leah, this looks gorgeous" Ruby grinned up at her causing Leah to blush slightly, she never was one to take compliments well, even over her cooking which she knew for herself was normally delicious.

"Hi Joey, I'm Leah… I live with Ruby and Charlie" Leah turned her attention to Ruby's dark haired lunch date. "I just wanted to thank you, you know for helping Ruby the other night"

"Oh it was nothing really, anyone would have done the same" Joey waved away modestly, feeling herself blush slightly at the attention being drawn her, she noticed Leah's face straighten, the warm smile replaced with a seriousness.

"No, not everyone would have done such a heroic act… you saved our Ruby from god knows what that night" Leah forced the smile back to her face when she noticed Ruby wince, her mood suddenly becoming a little more sombre as she realised for the first time the full extent at what could have happened to her.

"So if you're not busy tonight, I would really like for you to come for dinner so I can show my gratitude, it will just be the three of us and my son VJ" Leah smiled hopefully at Joey.

"Is Charlie not going to be home for dinner again?" Ruby asked the hint of disappointment not subtle enough in her voice for the other two women not to notice.

"No sorry Rubes, she was in here earlier on grabbing a coffee, she said something came up at work and she had to work over a bit… so what do you think Joey, will you come… please?" Leah pleaded slightly at the end as she returned her attention to Joey once Ruby had shrugged off Charlie not being home again.

Joey sat silently contemplating since Ruby had asked about Charlie, she didn't know what to do, there was a part of her that really wanted to be a part of a normal family meal, to have some company whilst she ate instead of the silence that normally joined her whilst she ate. But there was another part of her that was too afraid to get too close, what if they found out who she really was.

"Come on Jo, it will be fun, and Leah is an amazing cook" Joey was torn from her thoughts by Ruby's pleading thoughts, she glanced up and saw the same pleading expression on her face that she couldn't resist earlier either.

"Please come Joey, I would really like to thank you for what you did for Ruby" Leah followed Ruby's suit and put a pleading smile on her face. She glanced between them, noticing how they both nodded softly, almost answering their pleads for themselves.

"Sure, thanks it sounds lovely" Joey smiled thankfully towards Leah who felt relieved that she could thank the girl in the way she knew best, a little disappoint washed over her quickly when she realised that Charlie was going to miss out on the meal.

"Great, come round for seven o'clock, I better get back to work" Leah grinned as she peered over her shoulder and saw Colleen flustering and rushing about causing amused smiles to all her patrons' faces.

"Well I had best get back to school, lunch break is almost over so I will see you tonight" Ruby grinned as she and Joey exited the diner in synch after spending an enjoyable meal, spent mainly with Ruby telling Joey funny stories about events that had happened in the bay or back at boarding school.

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you at seven" Joey smiled sheepishly towards the younger girl, flinching suddenly when she found herself encased in a tight embrace.

"thank you so so much for rescuing me… you're my hero Jo" Ruby whispered into Joey's ear before pulling away and sheepishly heading back to school.

********************************

Joey stood nervously outside the house, fidgeting with the zipper on her jacket. She had never been invited to dinner before; she didn't quite know how to go about it. She wasn't sure whether she was supposed to bring something or if bringing something would be rude, she wasn't even sure what she was supposed to wear, was she supposed to dress up to these kinds of things. She felt like running back to the trailer, every muscle in her legs urged her to just turn around and run but her brain and heart told her that she couldn't do that to Leah or Ruby. Taking a deep breath, she walked up the steps and towards the door and rang the bell.

As the door swung open, she heard Ruby squeal in excitement before she even saw her in front of her, Ruby face held a massive grin as she greeted her new friend once more.

"Joey come in, let me grab your coat" Ruby grinned happily as she almost dragged the coat from Joey's back before hanging on the coat stand beside the door, Joey noticed Leah stood beside the oven, stirring the last few ingredients into the salad bowl.

"Hey Joey, you made it, go on through and sit down, dinners ready" Leah grinned over her shoulder as she handed Ruby the dish containing the salad before moving back to the oven.

"Ruby, pour Joey and I a glass of wine please" Leah called through into the lounge where she had set the bigger table up and laid it nicely for the meal, if there was one thing Leah loved more than cooking it was entertaining guests and wowing them with her table laying skills.

"Veej dinner's ready" Ruby called as Leah entered the room carrying pizza's before rushing back into the kitchen to grab the chips, once all of the meal was through she placed herself at the table opposite Joey and smiled warmly at her.

Suddenly the quiet was shattered as VJ ran into the room dressed in last year's vampire costume, false teeth and all. He lifted his cape to cover his fangs as he eyed Joey suspiciously before running and pretending he had not been visible as he moved from his stood spot to his seated spot.

"Vat's for dinner mother, blood soup?" VJ almost hissed as he put on his best Dracula voice, raising his eyebrow as he watched his mother smile adoringly at him.

"No Veej, its home made pizza, salad and chips" Leah laughed softly as Ruby shook her head amused.

"Ahh… I vant to suck your blood" VJ announced in his most practised vampire voice.

Joey was a little confused, her mind was racing as she stared at the little boy, did they know? Was this their way of letting her know that they knew all about her? Was it some kind of joke, were they mocking her? She felt sick, she moved her stare from VJ and noticed the amused expressions on Leah and Ruby's face.

"I'm sorry about VJ… he's been like this since Ruby let him watch Twilight with her a couple of weeks ago, everything is vampire this and blood that at the moment" Leah smiled at her, ruffling the young boys head who hissed at her causing her to laugh a little more.

Upon hearing the explanation, Joey relaxed feeling a little foolish at how she had reacted, the poor little boy was just acting out over a movie he saw and there she was almost blaming the entire family for mocking her. She shook her head, determined to enjoy the night.

"Oh, I haven't seen that one" Joey announced, quickly turning towards Ruby when she heard the gasp and saw the horror masked on her face, wondering what she had said wrong.

"I can't believe it, you haven't seen the best movie of all time? The ultimate vampire movie? The film that's so big in every country and its awesomeness amazes everyone? You're seriously telling me that you're in the one percent of the world that hasn't seen it – even though the others in your group live in deserts with no electricity and have a valid reason for not seeing it?" Ruby couldn't hide the shock on her face. She seriously thought that every person in the western world should have seen the film. She watched in horror as Joey shook her head sheepishly.

"Well I think we are going to have to do something about that!" Ruby stated, quickly glancing at VJ who sat nodding excitably that he had an excuse to watch the movie again, having been banned from watching it after he got to the stage where he was watching it four times a day, causing everybody else to miss their programmes and suffer watching the same scenes over and over until Leah had enough.

**************************

Charlie groaned as she realised that she hadn't taken the information in again, it was at least the fifth time she had read just that one paragraph having given in on the paragraph before it.

She had hoped to work late and study the case, wanting to get ahead with the latest reports but it was proving a lot more difficult than she had imagined, she was tired, hungry and fed up being confined in her office with the only company being photos of the dead women.

Dumping the file on her desk she sighed, she wondered if she should grab a coffee before starting again and hopefully retaining some of the information, she heard her mind almost laugh at her, mocking her for being stupid enough to think that another cup of coffee would actually make her concentrate more than the last several she had drunk since returning to the station.

She glanced to her watch, wondering if it were too late to call a pizza from the Yabbie creek, noticing that it was only five past seven she sighed, she must be overworked if it felt like eleven at night but was only seven, but at least that meant if she left now she would be able to share dinner with Ruby, Leah and VJ.

The thought of spending some time with her sister and friends quickly caused a smile to erupt on her tired face, she grabbed her jacket and rucksack, rifling around in the side pocket she grabbed her keys and made for the door, waving to the officers that stood in the main foyer pretending to work as soon as they noticed her, but right at that moment there was only one thing on her mind, and it wasn't reprimanding the guys for not working as hard as she was.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**

**Thank you all for your kind reviews. They really make my day and inspire me to continue. This next chapter is a short one, but I hope you will all like it anyway.**

**Author W: sorry you had to wait for the chapter, but hope you'll like it.**

**Purplemonkeyys: hope you still think it is cool... and they will eventually meet... it wouldn't be a CJ story if they didn't :)**

**Jsco81:hope you'll like the chapter.**

**Kgirl36: Charlie is home now... hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

**Speedracer22uk: well I hope this chapter is worth the wait for you.**

**Funkyshaz57: hope you'll like what you read... I don't know if it is a good thing Charlie came home... you tell me :)**

**1818: We really got to get you out of that clay hut, and into civilization. This chapter is for you, a belated B-day gift from me, hope you'll like it :)**

**Don't forget to review :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter eight**

Pulling her car up the drive, Charlie forced herself to get out, she knew if she sat too long she would fall asleep there, she forced her tired body up the stairs in through the door, she was slightly surprised to find the kitchen completely empty, she would have thought the guys would have been eating by now, unless they ate earlier and she missed out.

She was just about to shout Ruby and Leah when she heard laughter coming from the lounge. She unbuckled her heavy utility belt and placed it on the table along with her keys and phone, unlacing her boots she kicked them off and placed them to the side before she made her way to the fridge and grabbed a cold beer, spinning the top off she threw it carelessly towards the sink, not really caring about leaving a mess at the moment.

She lifted the cold bottle to her mouth, sighing in satisfaction when she felt the cold liquid hit the back of her throat, enjoying the taste of the alcohol. She made her way into the lounge, a tired smile playing on her lips as she walked, wondering why the guys were eating in the lounge for a change, it was normally only at special occasions they ate through there.

"Hey guys, why are you eating dinner through here tonight, what's the special occa…" Charlie stopped dead in her tracks when her eyes met Joeys; she felt her heart suddenly pitch as it began to race in her chest.

"Charlie you're home!" Ruby squealed happily as she jumped from her seat and quickly pulled her sister into a hug, the evening so far had been brilliant and now her sister was home, it was turning into one of the best evenings of her life.

"Leah invited Joey for dinner to say thanks for the other night" Ruby stated as she noticed the slight confused expression written all over her sister's beautiful features.

Charlie stood motionless, she couldn't tear her eyes from Joey, she noticed Joey staring back at her questioningly, she felt her throat dry as she realised she was stood in the exact same position she was in when she noticed Joey, but for some reason she couldn't find the strength or will to stop and move.

"Hey Charlie, I thought you couldn't make it for dinner… you haven't eaten yet have you?" Leah grinned towards her, happy that she had made it home earlier than planned.

"Charlie… Hello… anybody home? ... Earth to Charlie!" Ruby grinned as she nudged Charlie, amused to her actions, she had never seen her act so strangely, she wondered what had gotten into her, and she made a mental note to find out later after their company had left.

"Err… what, sorry what were you saying Rubes?" Charlie glanced towards her sister before quickly turning her attention back to the dark beauty sat at her table.

"Leah asked if you had eaten yet… Charlie?" Ruby nudged her again, her grin growing by the second as the realisation hit her, Charlie was so into Joey. It was so obvious from the way she was looking at her, everyone else in the room may as well disappear and Charlie wouldn't care, the room could be filled to the brim and the only person Charlie would notice would still be Joey.

The last time Ruby had seen Charlie act like this was a long time ago, it was back in the city, Charlie had brought some girl to the house while their parents were out and Ruby had caught them making out on the couch whilst she was supposed to be sleeping, after explaining everything to Ruby, Charlie had begged her not to say anything to their parents, she didn't want them finding out about it until she was completely ready.

She had agreed on one condition, that Charlie take her out more often to do fun things, Charlie had agreed and Sarah had tagged along, Ruby remembered how happy they seemed, that of course was before Sarah had broken Charlie's heart by cheating on her with some skank from work.

Ruby turned her attention to Joey, noticing the exact dreamy lost expression on her face as she stared back at Charlie, completely oblivious to the fork holding her mouthful of salad which sat frozen between her plate and mouth. Ruby grinned broader, she couldn't help thinking that the evening was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

Leah returned to the lounge with a plate and fork for Charlie, placing it at the head of the table next to Joey, she subtly bumped into Charlie as she made her way past her, apologising when Charlie snapped from her daze, her blush rushing to her face when she noticed Ruby and Leah's knowing smiles directed straight at her as if they were reading her mind.

She forced herself to sit down at the seat laid out for her, trying desperately not to stare at Joey again, but her eyes kept flicking towards her for fleeting moments.

Leah held up the ceramic tray holding the pizza, edging it towards Charlie, she cleared her throat loudly when she noticed Charlie beginning to stare at their guest again, Charlie jumped slightly as the noise invaded her ears, she glanced towards the source and noticed Leah trying to feign innocence and hide her smile.

Dinner was progressing, for Charlie it was badly, for Ruby and Leah however it was progressing brilliantly, they had sat back and enjoyed watching Charlie totally blunder her way through the meal, first she had spilt her bottle, causing it to soak into the table cloth, a moment or two later she had knocked Joey's wine glass over, whilst trying to fork a tomato it had slid from her plate, but she couldn't catch the tomato and it rolled to the floor and hidden itself under the sideboard, and to top off the list she had dropped a full slice of pizza on the floor.

Charlie was starting to get annoyed with herself, each time she mentally yelled at herself for her clumsiness, calling herself an idiot and telling herself she was a fool. It didn't help that Ruby and Leah had begun giggling softly when she had first knocked the bottle over, but as the blunders got worse, so did their giggles, worse and more obvious, drawing embarrassment and shame to her.

Joey could see the amusing side of it, but she could tell Charlie wasn't finding it funny, the none too subtle glares she had been throwing her sister and friend since the giggles began gave that away, she had refrained her own giggles not wanting to upset or embarrass her anymore, instead she helped her, mopping up the beer and wine and picking up the pizza. Charlie couldn't help but admire how sweet and helpful Joey had been.

She took a large gulp from her almost empty beer as she tried to clear her mind, the more blunders she made the more nervous she became and the more blunders she was likely to make.

Picking up her fork with the intention of finishing the small amount on her plate and getting out of the way of anything else that she could spill, drop or break, she frowned as she felt the fork slip from her fingers, she glanced down, and noticing it resting almost menacingly between her and Joey, taunting her from its resting spot.

She bent over, determined to grab it in hope that nobody would notice if she grabbed it quickly enough, as her fingers reached out for it she felt her head collide with something, wondering what she had done now, she snapped her head upwards.

She felt herself fall into those eyes, those beautiful brown eyes that belonged to Joey, she hadn't realised that she would try to pick the fork up also. Charlie suddenly realised how close she was to Joey, they were barely inches apart, and she could feel the soft tickly of Joey's breath lightly brushing against her face. She could feel her heart pounding almost nervously in her chest. She tried to breath but couldn't, her whole body had gone into melt down the second their eyes had met.

Her eyes dropped from the deep dark pools and rested upon Joey's lips, subconsciously licking her own lips, she felt the urge to kiss her, it wasn't just an urge, she needed to kiss her, and she needed to feel the softness of her lips against her own.

"Here you go… I think you dropped it" Joey stammered, forcing herself from her thoughts, she felt herself blush hoping that Charlie hadn't been able to see what thoughts had been running through her mind.

"Err, thanks… sorry about bumping your head… I didn't see you" Charlie tried to calm her nerves as she sat back in her chair, she forced herself to look away from Joey, her eyes quickly falling on the two faces watching her with amused smiles, the colour rushed to her own cheeks as she realised she was well and truly sprung


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**

**Thank you all so much for your kind words, they always make me smile and want to write more.**

**I hope you all will like this chapter as much as the previous one.**

**Don't forget to R&R :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter nine**

With the dinner dishes washed and put away in record breaking time, the inhabitants of the house dubbed 'Leah's', had retired to the lounge to watch Twilight together. Leah had snuggled up to VJ on one sofa, enjoying the few sparse moments VJ still allowed her to mother him, with his age came his independence and having his mother kiss and cuddle him all the time was quickly becoming very not cool.

Ruby had sprawled herself out on the lounge floor, making herself comfortable with numerous cushions. The large bowl of popcorn that had been intended for the group lay on her stomach as she ate constantly from it, determined to prove that she could in fact eat the entire lot after a meal, mostly she was determined to win her bet against her sister.

Charlie and Joey were sat on the second couch, each sitting almost awkwardly, trying to ignore the feelings that would rush through them when their legs brushed together, or their arms touched briefly, each wondering how they should react to the emotions that soured within them when they heard the soft giggles and deep breaths of the other.

"Well girls, I think it's time I hit the sack, come on you too VJ" Leah smiled at the three female faces before turning her attention to her son, ruffling his hair softly causing him to grimace.

"Oh mum, the movies not over yet!" VJ poked out his bottom lip and batted his eyelids as he had seen Ruby do so many times successfully.

"I know, but I have to be up at the crack of dawn for the Diner tomorrow and you're practically sleeping… I promise you can watch it again tomorrow" Leah tried to contain the giggle as she saw Ruby's pout on her sons features.

"Promise?" The little boy eyed her suspiciously, he could always tell the difference between his mum's promises and when she just agreed with him to get him to do what she wanted and then 'forgot' all about it.

"I promise… come on bed time, say goodnight" Leah kissed his forehead softly when his suspicious frown turned to a gleeful smile, he instantly blushed as he gazed around the room and saw the others watching their interaction.

"Thanks for coming round Joey, it was good to be able to thank you properly, you should come round again, it has been fun" After watching her son jump from the sofa and wave goodnight to the three women, Leah rose with a smile, leaning over she pulled Joey into a hug.

Joey nodded almost shyly, wondering if she would be lucky enough to be invited into the house again, she watched on as Leah, Charlie and Ruby said their farewells to each other, their simultaneous 'good night' drawing her from her day dream.

"It's getting late… I think I had best be heading home too" Joey stated after eyeing her watch.

"No Joey! You can't leave yet… you have to stay and watch the rest of the movie with us" Ruby pulled her pleading face that VJ had tried and failed to pull off just five minutes earlier, when Joey still didn't agree instantly, Ruby turned her gaze to Charlie, pleading her to stop Joey from leaving so soon.

"You should stay and watch the rest of the movie" Charlie spoke softly, willing her voice not to give away the desperation she felt to spend more time with her.

"It's getting dark so I guess I really should be going" Joey answered both girls almost sadly.

"I will drive you home after the movie" Charlie jumped in quickly before Ruby had a chance, she really wasn't ready to let Joey go just yet and she certainly wasn't going to let her walk home alone with a killer on the loose.

"Come on Jo… please stay" Ruby begged, the pleading on her face becoming too dramatic for Joey to stand turning down, she turned to Charlie to turn her down instead but found the exact same expression on the elder sister's face.

"How can I resist those faces…? I guess when you put it that way I could stay and watch the rest of the movie" She really wasn't interested in the movie, although she couldn't air her views to the two other women, she found it rather stupid and completely unrealistic, she was staying because she wasn't quite ready to part ways with Charlie.

She sat back down on the couch, daring herself to sit a little closer to the tall brunette, smiling inwardly when she succeeded with her aim.

"Cool!" Ruby enthused, she had noticed Joey aim to sit closer to her sister, she also noticed the smile spread across Charlie's face when Joey had eventually glanced away, and she grinned to herself before turning her attention back to the movie and her almost empty bowl of popcorn.

As soon as the credits began to roll, Ruby jumped up excitedly, desperate to know what Joey thought of the movie, she smiled softly when the sight before her met her eyes.

Charlie and Joey had dozed off, their bodies leaning towards each others, various limps touching lightly. Ruby rose from the floor, throwing the cushions back onto the couch, she stretched out, willing her muscles to ease out a little.

She glanced back at her sister and new friend, she couldn't deny that they would make a beautiful couple, there was something about Charlie when Joey was around, She had been in full cop mode ever since she had gotten her heart broken, the only thing that got her attention was her little sister and her career.

Grabbing a blanket, Ruby tiptoed towards the sleeping women, trying hard not to disturb them when they looked so sweet leaning against each other, as she approached Joey moved slightly, rolling into Charlie, her head moving from being leant against the side of Charlie's to being rested completely on her shoulder.

Ruby smiled as she watched both women snuggle into the new embrace, she carefully lifted the blanket over them, not wanting them to get cold through the night.

"Good night love birds" Ruby grinned cheekily, she flinched when Charlie stirred slightly, only to snake her arm around Joey's waist and pull her in closer before drifting back into a deep slumber.

*********************************

She pulled her coat a little tighter around her chest, the night hadn't looked so cold as she had finished up at work and locked up, but now that she was outside feeling the cool sea air blow against her face she wished she had brought her car. She couldn't wait to just get home and tuck herself into bed, feel the sheets of the bed adjust to her body temperature as she fell into a deep dream filled sleep.

"Hi there beautiful, do you wanna have some fun tonight?" The brunette spun around to be met with two men grinning at her, it was the blonde guy speaking, she forced herself to act braver than she felt. Puffing out her chest and straightening her shoulders she tried to smile in hope if they saw she was a nice person they would leave her alone.

"No thanks, I'm going to go now, my boyfriend will be waiting at home for me" She lied hoping they would get scared off if they thought someone would come looking for her any second.

"Oh, I don't think so Honey" He smirked as he gazed sleazily down her body.

"I'm not your honey!" Her voice was beginning to show the fear she felt, she turned on her heel, determined to get home as soon as possible, into some safety and to call the police, inform them of the dangers she was experiencing right now.

"Oh, we got a feisty one this time Angelo" The blond guy grinned as he lunged forward and grasped the woman's arm.

"Feisty indeed Robbo… but she looks so fine… I think master is going to be pleased with this one" Angelo grinned back to his friend as his hand covered the woman's voice, blocking her right to scream for help.

"Yeah, he's going to be very pleased" Robbo laughed, turning into the night he made a sound that sent a bolt of fear rushing through the brunette, she watched with wide eyes as figure appeared from the dark.

The smile on his face alone petrified her, she began to struggle, desperate to free herself from the man's clutch, she felt tears form in her eyes when she realised that the grasp was just too strong for her to break free.

"Oh, you've found a good one here boys!" Brett grinned as he stroked his finger softly down her face. She squirmed at the coolness that his finger forced upon her skin, in a burst of panic she began to squirm harder, she tried to kick him causing Brett to laugh heartily.

"You can't run Sweetheart… but please try… it will merely turn me on a lot more" Brett smirked as he grabbed the woman's jaw, forcing her to face him. His spare hand trailed slowly to her jacket, with one smooth motion he ripped the fabric of it and her top, exposing her almost bare chest to him, only the black lace bra covered her girls from his sight.

The tears finally began to fall as she realised there was nothing more she could do. She didn't expect what had happened next, Brett pushed against her jaw roughly, forcing her head to the right, exposing her long neck. Her eyes widened in fear as she watched from the corner of her eyes, the transformation that Brett made.

With a smile, Brett plunged his teeth into the girls neck, he savoured in the taste of her blood as the woman winced and groaned as she sunk slowly to the floor, with each moment that passed her strength weakened, until finally she lay on the floor, staring at the building she had left as the blood was drained from her.

*********************************

Joey awoke with a start, she blinked slowly as she glanced around the room, she recognised her surroundings but with sleep hazed confusion, she couldn't quite place herself. The more the fog lifted from her tired mind, the more frequent and clear the memories of the night before came back to her.

She realised she must have fallen asleep on the couch, a smile played softly on her lips as she thought back to the nice evening she had with her new friends. Feeling a stir beside her, she realised that Charlie must have fallen asleep to, it also explained the arm that was wrapped firmly around her waist.

The embrace felt so comforting, she relaxed back into it, closing her eyes to revel in the feeling, enjoying the scent of Charlie's skin, feeling the soft pulse flowing throughout her own body. She bathed in the comfort and security she felt as she moulded her own body into the other woman's, she couldn't remember the last time she had slept through the whole night, she normally woke several times throughout the night, the nightmares of her brother causing her to jolt awake perspiring.

Charlie moved slightly as she awoke, instantly sensing the woman beside her, she could feel her moving slightly in her arms causing her to smile softly, laying holding Joey felt so right to her, nothing felt more natural. Tightening her embrace, she moved her face closer into Joey, inhaling her scent softly enjoying the feeling as it tingled lightly in her nostrils causing her smile to grow. She allowed her lips to kiss the nearest piece of Joey she could.

"God you are so beautiful Joey, I wish we could lay here like this forever" Charlie murmured into her hair softly. She began to tighten her embrace when she heard Leah walking through the rooms on her way to the kitchen. Knowing she had to get up, Charlie opened her eyes, pulling back slightly she admired the woman laid in her arms for a few moments before whispering her name a few times till the shorter woman fluttered her eyes open.

Joey was silently lying in Charlie's embrace, when she had realised the older woman was stirring, she had decided to pretend to be asleep so she could enjoy the feeling a little longer. She forced herself to keep a straight face when she felt Charlie's lips on the top of her head, she felt her heart begin to pound in her chest when Charlie had whispered to her, she was secretly enjoying the feelings Charlie was evoking inside her. Her enjoyment was disturbed at the sound of someone walking through the room and Charlie whispering her name softly.

Joey fluttered her eyes open, moving her head slightly she turned to be met by two pools of blue staring intently at her, she felt her breath catch in her throat when Charlie smiled warmly at her before mouthing "morning".

"Morning… guess we fell asleep on the couch" Joey stretched slightly to make it look like she had just woken up but was careful to not move out of Charlie's embrace, loving every moment she was in her arms.

"Guess so" Charlie replied half heartedly, she could feel herself falling deep into Joey's brown eyes. She could feel a force, pulling her towards Joey's lips, every muscle in her body begged her to lean in and capture her soft lips.

"Good morning sleeping beauties… how did you both sleep?... pleasant dreams I hope" Ruby grinned as she noticed the longing look on both women's faces as she made her way to the kitchen.

"Morning Ruby, are you ready for school?" Charlie smiled warningly, hoping to take the attention off of her and Joey.

Once Ruby had exited the room, Charlie and Joey rose from the sofa nervously, they glanced shyly towards each other, both begging their minds to think of something to say so they didn't look foolish.

"So erm… do you want some coffee or breakfast?" Charlie praised herself mentally for thinking of something logical to say.

"Coffee would be nice" Joey quietly replied, not knowing where to look, she followed Charlie nervously into the kitchen as they avoided each other's gaze.

Charlie was startled from her thoughts of what to say to Joey next by her shrill mobile ring tone. She rolled her eyes unhappily as she saw the stations number flash upon the screen.

"Give a girl a chance would you!" Charlie grumbled causing Joey to smile, she couldn't help but think that Charlie was adorable as she watched her answer her phone and chat.

"Senior Constable Buckton… you what?... when?... who?... oh no… yeah I will be right there, give me ten minutes!" Joey knew from the expression on Charlie's face what was going on, she instantly felt her stomach turn. She watched on as Charlie grabbed her belt and threw it on her now creased uniform, shoving her feet roughly in her boots, she grabbed her bag and car keys before running to the door.

"Gotta go… emergency at the station" Charlie threw over her shoulder as she left, trying hard to ignore the sadness enveloping her heart as she left Joey without so much as a good bye.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N**

**Hi everybody. **

**Thank you so much for all your kind reviews. I'm so happy that you all enjoyed the last chapter.**

**This chapter was firstly written as two chapters, however, I changed my mind, rewrote it a bit and made it into one chapter. **

**Hope you'll like this chapter too :)**

**Please don't forget to R & R.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter ten**

Charlie arrived at the scene and once again saw a blue plastic sheet covering another dead woman. This time, however, it wasn't like all the other times, this time it was personal. She swallowed hard before bending down to remove the plastic sheet from the body and willed herself to look at the pale lifeless face of her friend Martha.

She closed her eyes, trying to get control of her emotions, thinking to herself that she had to be strong and control herself; it wouldn't look good if the Senior Constable was sitting at the crime scene crying. She looked up towards the Surf Club sign and couldn't help but wonder if it was the last thing Martha seen.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Alf standing up against the wall looking pale and grief stricken. He looked ten years older than usual, Charlie thought to herself. She had been informed on the phone that it was Alf that had found Martha when he had arrived to open the Surf Club for the day.

She stood up and walked over to him, and at that point she didn't really care about professionalism as she just took Alf in her arms and hugged him. She stood embracing the broken man for a moment without any inclination to say any words, she just wanted to comfort him for a little while, eventually she pulled back and looked at Alf's distraught face, noticing the unashamed tears silently running across his cheeks.

"Alf I'm so sorry... I will find the person who did this to Martha... I promise you that" she spoke looking straight at Alf, whose only response was a solemn nod. After standing looking at each other for a while, Alf spoke hoarsely.

"Charlie did you see what was done to her... who or what would do this to my granddaughter... why Martha?" the sobs wracked throughout his body as another wave of grief washed over him.

Charlie didn't know what to tell Alf, she simply hugged him again stroking his back soothingly as she latched onto her and spilled his tears onto her uniform. She knew that Alf must have seen the puncture marks on Martha's neck and she knew it now it would be very difficult to keep the case under wraps, but she didn't know what to say because she didn't know why this was happening or who was behind it.

*********************************

Hours later Charlie sat in her office felling totally drained. She hadn't eaten lunch or breakfast; she had been too busy working. Her superiors had decided to come public with Martha's murder, but to keep the rest as quiet and confidential as possible to avoid public and media frenzy.

She had been busy all day talking to the press, interviewing Alf and other possible witnesses who may have seen or heard anything that could blow open the case and breaking the news to her friends and family, trying to comfort them, it had been such a hard and emotional day.

Now she finally sat alone in her office, the grief started to overcome her as tears started to fall down her cheeks as she hid her head into her palms, quietly crying into them. Seconds later she heard a silent knock on her door, she quickly dried her eyes and yelled "come in" trying not to look like she had just been crying.

**********************************

Joey was walking along the beach thinking about Charlie and the latest murder. She had found out that it had been one of Charlie's, Ruby's and Leah's friends that had been murdered. She felt so sorry for them, for the pain they were feeling. She couldn't help but feel guilty, after all it was her brothers doing that caused their pain. She got so angry thinking about what her brother had done, she wished she could find a way to stop him.

Still walking along the beach she kept thinking of the expression on Charlie's face, when she had gotten the phone call this morning. It was heartbreaking for Joey to see, she felt a lone tear run down her face as she once again felt partly responsible for Charlie's heartache. She sat down tugging her legs up, resting her head on her knees just looking out on the water, trying to clear her mind, but images of Charlie kept coming back to her.

Her stomach growling interrupted her thoughts, she decided to head to the diner and grab some lunch; that was one problem she could fix easily. As she got up a thought crossed her mind, she smiled as she picked up her pace as she glided towards the Diner.

Joey entered the station carrying two bags, she didn't feel comfortable walking into the police station, but the need to see Charlie over wrote the discomfort and nerves, she needed to see if she was ok. Walking towards the reception desk she saw a police woman fiddling with some papers, she instantly recognised the long curly brunette as someone she had noticed Charlie with at some of the crime scenes.

She quickly asked for Charlie as the nerves coursed through her, the police woman just pointed towards a door; too busy answering the phone to really notice Joey. Joey took a deep breath, knocked on the door and heard Charlie yelling come in.

*******************************

Charlie looked up at the door as it opened not expecting her visitor to be the one person she actually wanted to be knocking on her door.

"JOEY!!... hi... come in... What brings you here?" Joey entered the office closing the door behind her. She immediately saw Charlie's red and puffy eyes and knew she had been crying. Showing the bags in her hands she replied softly.

"I come with some refreshment... I got you coffee and a doughnut... I figured it was the right thing to bring to a police officer." She walked towards Charlie with a smile and continued. "But if you don't like doughnut's I also brought you a BLT sandwich."

Charlie couldn't help but smile towards Joey and the sweet gesture she had made. "Thanks, I think I'll go for the sandwich." Joey put the bags with coffee and food on the table in front of Charlie. Still looking at her, she saw Charlie's smile disappear again.

"Charlie are you okay" Charlie nodded as she tried to force a smile onto her face.

"Yeah sure just a little tired" Joey sat down turning Charlie's chair so they now were facing each other, their heads only inches apart.

"Charlie you don't look fine to me, it looks like you've been crying" Joey looked straight into Charlie's eyes.

Charlie couldn't hold back any more, and started to cry again. With tears streaming down her face, she sobbed "I'm so sorry Joey" Joey immediately took Charlie in her arms gently stroking her back

"You have nothing to be sorry about... so don't say that." They sat silently like for what felt to both women like an eternity yet both knew that the embrace would be over far sooner than they wanted. Charlie cried into Joey's neck as she clutched her tightly. Taking a deep breath, Charlie tried to compose herself she drew back from the embrace looking straight into Joeys brown eyes,

"Thank you" Charlie whispered softly. Without any planning or realisation of what her body was doing, she pushed her head forward capturing Joey's lips with her own.

Charlie pulled away from the kiss slowly with a smile, happy that Joey had kissed her back and had not pulled away the second their lips connected. She couldn't help thinking that it must mean something, perhaps Joey liked her too.

Looking into Joeys eyes, she searched for a reaction from Joey; she found surprise, confusion and fear. Not knowing what to think she felt a panic rise inside of her and started to ramble "I'm sorry Jo... I don't know why I did it... or well I do... I just know that I needed to feel close to you... I'm so sorry... I shouldn't have done that Jo... sorry"

Joey, still surprised by the kiss, watched Charlie before her rambling looking more and more distressed by the second. She felt her heart beating hard in her chest, she wanted to lean in and kiss Charlie again, it had felt so good and right to share a kiss with her, but she was afraid, afraid of her feelings towards Charlie and of hurting her.

"I... I... I've got to go" Joey mumbled and ran from Charlie's office and out of the station. She could hear Charlie calling her name behind her, but she couldn't stop, she needed to get away and clear her thoughts.

Charlie stood heartbroken in the entrance door to the station looking at Joey running away from her. She was about to chase after her when she heard a voice calling her.

"Senior we have just received the coroner's preliminary report by fax" she turned around looking at Watson with a sigh.

"Okay let's look at it in my office" she said wishing the day would end soon, she felt totally emotionally drained now.

"Damn" Charlie sighed from her desk as she threw her pen across the room, realising that the report didn't bring anything new to the case. Watson looked at her in surprise; she had never seen such outbursts from Charlie before

"Are you okay Senior?" she asked attentively.

"Yeah I'm just tired and annoyed that we can't get a break in the case" Charlie replied quickly, not wanting to show any weakness to her colleague.

Watson eyed Charlie suspiciously not believing her, she had seen the girl run from Charlie's office and had even seen the look on Charlie's face as she tried to run after her. She got up to leave the office to follow up on some more leads.

"Okay Senior... You know I'm here if you need me" she said closing the door behind her.

Charlie turned her attention back to the case, after nodding with a small smile towards Watson when she left her office. Her stomach had begun to growl as her hunger took over her mind. She peered into the bags Joey had brought and grabbed the sandwich and began to eat it.

She knew she had to focus on the case, but she couldn't get Joey off her mind. This was the second time Joey had run away from her, why did she do that, did she not like her, and if she didn't why had she kissed back? Had she read all the signals wrong? All the questions kept running around in her head driving her mad.

She needed to talk to her, she rose from her chair and picked up her keys and coat walked out her office and towards her car, telling Watson on her way that she had to go for a drive but would be back shortly.

Determined to figure this out with Joey she once again sat in her car as she drove in the direction of the caravan park to look for Joey. When she arrived she exited her car and almost ran towards Joey's trailer, she needed to talk about their kiss and find out what was going on between them.

As she neared the trailer her confidence fell, she stopped for a moment as the nerves began to get the better of her, what if Joey didn't want anything to do with her. Shaking her head to rid the thoughts, she took a deep breath and walked the rest of the way to Joey's trailer.

She had to know that it wasn't all in her head, that she hadn't imagined the signals from Joey. Knocking on Joey's trailer door, she waited impatiently only to discover that there was no response, Joey wasn't home.

With a heavy heart and full of disappointed, Charlie turned on her heel to walk the short distance back towards her squad car, she froze when she found Joey standing in front of her only a few steps away. They both stood frozen not quite knowing what to say or do, Charlie finally broke the trance as she began to move towards her.

"Joey I really need to talk to you... I..." She didn't get chance to finish her sentence as she watched Joey turn away from her and run.

"Joey... Joey please don't run away... we need to talk about this" With a determination to not allow Joey to run away from her again, Charlie began to give chase, but within just seconds Joey had disappeared. Charlie paused to take a breath as she took in her surroundings, wondering how Joey had managed to run so fast away from her.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N**

**Hi I j****ust wanted to post another chapter for you all too read.**

**It is a short chapter, but I hope that you'll all like what happens in it anyway :)**

**Jsco81: Thank you so much for you kind words, they really meant a lot.**

**Author W: I hope you'll think this chapter is great as well :)**

**1818: Patience my friend... you will eventually learn more about Brett, and as for both Joey and Charlie I know they are both struggling atm., but just remember all good things comes to those who wait :)**

**M: hope you'll like it.**

**All your kind reviews really encourage me to continue writing on the story :)**

**You are now able to leave anonymous reviews, so please leave a few words to let me know what you think. **

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter eleven**

Joey was shocked when she found Charlie standing in front of her trailer. Part of her wanted to stride towards her and take her in her arms and hold her, but another part wanted to run away. She was frozen to the spot; she could only focus on Charlie.

Every time she saw her she got lost in those beautiful blue eyes. When she had realised that Charlie was talking to her whilst approaching her she had felt the panic within her rise and without thinking she turned away and ran, she could hear Charlie call out her name, but she kept running, she turned back to find Charlie running after her, without thinking about the consequences she picked up her pace and sped away, determined to escape the beautiful brunette chasing her.

Once again, Joey found herself sat on the beach looking out to sea, she felt so confused about everything. Her feelings for Charlie were so strong and she had never felt this way before, all she wanted was to kiss her, touch her, feel her and be with her all the time, Charlie was all she could think about, but she was afraid she would hurt her like her mother had hurt her father.

She rested her head on her knees and started to cry. Suddenly she felt someone sitting down next to her and putting their arm around her. She glanced up.

***********************

Charlie was determined to find Joey, she ran towards the beach the same way she had suspected Joey would run. She couldn't see her at a glance, so she decided to walk along the beach and take a closer look for her. She was about ready to give up as she neared the end of the beach when she spotted Joey sitting at the very end of the beach with her head in her knees.

As she drew closer she could see that Joey was crying. She felt her heart break; she didn't want to be the one that made Joey cry. When she finally reached her, she silently sat down beside her and wrapped her arm around her, determined to comfort her in at least some small way. Joey looked up at her and their eyes met and she instantly got lost in those beautiful brown eyes.

"Joey I'm so sorry... I didn't want to make you cry... I just thought... well I'm just madly... well I..." Charlie sighed, looking down at the sand as she tried to work out what it was she wanted to say, why couldn't she get any words out when she was talking to Joey, her mind just seemed to turn to mush and she wasn't able to think straight.

She looked up again and saw that Joey was still looking at her. "Joey I didn't want to hurt you... I just like you so much... after last night you are all that I can think about...I think I am falling for you... I just need to know if you are feeling the same... or if I've misread any signals here?"

Joey sighed and looked back out at the sea. Inside, her feelings were at war with each other. Part of her wanted to jump up and scream joyfully that she felt the same about Charlie, but the other part of her that kept causing her to run was urging her to run again.

"I like you too Charlie... a lot... you haven't misread any signals... your all I think about too... I've never felt this way about anyone before." she was surprised to hear herself telling Charlie how she felt. She felt Charlie take her hand and entwine their fingers. It felt so nice; she felt the butterflies which were always present when she was near Charlie flutter harder in her stomach than they ever had before.

Charlie felt her heart pounding in her chest as Joey's words hit her ears, she felt so happy. She took Joey's hand in hers and entwined their fingers, enjoying the tingling feeling she experienced every time she touched Joey. They sat there for a while just enjoying the feeling of holding each other's hands, Charlie finally raising her confidence and courage to ask the question she was desperate to ask.

"So… Joey what are we gonna do about this?" She looked back at Joey awaiting an answer but when she noticed tears falling down Joey's cheeks and felt a panic rise inside again.

Joey was enjoying the feeling of having Charlie so close to her, however, when she heard Charlie's question all her insecurities and fear came back. She felt the tears running down her cheeks when she realised that she could never be with Charlie and that the only thing she could do was not only break Charlie's heart, but also break her own.

"I... I... don't think this is a good idea Charlie... we shouldn't be doing this... I can't... I'm so sorry." with tears still streaming down her face she quickly got up to walk away, but she felt Charlie's hand on her arm, pulling her around so she was facing Charlie. She saw the tears running freely down Charlie's face causing a mixture of feelings to erupt within her.

"Joey please don't run away from me anymore... why are you always running away from me? You have just told me that you have feelings for me, and you know I have feelings for you...so… why can't we just be together?"

"Charlie I just can't... please let me go... I'm so sorry" Joey begged, she didn't even know if that's what she wanted Charlie to do but she knew it was what she needed her to do. Charlie still had a firm grip on her arm, as she gazed at her with two sad confused eyes.

"But why Joey... tell me what are you so afraid off?... I'm crazy about you... I won't hurt you… I promise I won't hurt you" Joey was surprised by Charlie's words, she hadn't realised that Charlie would think she was the one who would do the hurting. As she looked deep into the two blue pools she could see the heartbreak laid within them, the same heartbreak that she herself felt.

"Charlie I'm not afraid of you hurting me.... I'm afraid..." she paused and looked out to sea; she really wished she could just tell Charlie the truth

"You're afraid of what" she heard Charlie ask. She looked back at her, they were both crying softly.

"I'm afraid of me hurting you... and I couldn't live with that if anything happened to you" Charlie smiling through her tears, moving closer to her so they now stood inches apart

"Joey I'm a big girl I can take care of myself." Joey looked in Charlie's blue eyes and before she had realised it she had moved her head toward Charlie and kissed her. She felt Charlie putting her arm around her waist and pulling her closer whilst kissing her back.

Joey felt like her heart was about to burst free from her chest. Her whole body trembled and longed to be closer to Charlie. She wrapped her arms around Charlie pulling her as close to her as possible, she could feel Charlie's body heat against her own skin through their clothing.

They pulled apart, resting their forehead together looking into each other's eyes and smiling, oblivious to the world and anything in it around them, each focussed on just one thing, the woman stood before them.

"Joey... I..." Charlie tried to say but was cut off by the feeling of Joey's lips on her own, she tasted so good. Joey slightly parted her lips and allowed her tongue lick the taller brunette's lips. Charlie quickly allowed Joey entrance to her mouth, their tongues connected and began to dance around each other. It was a kiss filled with passion and love. Neither of the women pulled away until the air requirements forced them to part slightly.

"Joey I really have to get back to work... but can I come by after work?... and we can talk .... and maybe kiss some more" Charlie asked smiling mischievously to Joey but feeling very nervous about what Joey would answer.

Joey nodded. "I would like that."

They smiled softly at each other and took each other's hands and walked slowly away from the beach, back toward the caravan park and to Charlie's car.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N**

**Thank you all for all your wonderful reviews... they really do make me smile when reading them... keep them coming.**

**Sorry for the lateness in updating, but Uni. Is keeping me busy, have this paper to write about intercultural communication... I know it doesn't sound as thrilling as writing on this story... and let me tell you it is not, but it has to be done, so I don't know how much I'm going to be able to update, before I finish it... I will try, however :)**

**This chapter is for you PM... I hope you'll return to us quickly :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter twelve**

Charlie felt like she was floating on cloud number nine, she couldn't stop smiling as she drove back to the station. Her new happy mood causing her to decide to drop by the Diner to pick up some refreshments for her colleagues back at the station.

She walked out of the Diner with her hands full of bags containing numerous coffee's and muffins, all she still could think about was Joey and the kiss they had shared. She didn't notice someone running fast towards her.

Suddenly the bags were flying all over the place, and she got soaked in coffee as it spilled all over her from their confines. She had been knocked over.

"Oi watch it" was all she could manage to say, she was still surprised, and didn't know what had just hit her.

"Oh my god, I'm so clumsy... I'm so sorry" Charlie heard a voice with a funny accent telling her. She looked up and saw a very pretty young girl with long brown hair hanging loose down to her shoulders and brown eyes staring apologetically at her, offering her a hand so she could get up. She took the hand and notices a tattoo on the girl's wrist of two little purple monkeys.

"you should really watch were your going" Charlie frowned as she tore her gaze from the tattoo.

"Yes I know... I'm so sorry... leave it to me to run into a police officer and knock her over. I'm so sorry... hey let me buy you some fresh coffee please" the girl offered pointing towards the door of the Diner.

Charlie looked down to the pavement and saw coffee cups and muffins spread out all over the place.

"well okay and some new muffins too" she added nodding at the girl, while picking up the cups and muffins that laid spread out on the pavement so she could throw them in the bin. After they had cleaned up the mess, they both entered the Diner together.

As they stood in line, waiting to place their order she couldn't help but look at the girl. She was pretty she thought, not much older than Ruby, she wondered where she was from. She reached out her hand to the girl

"I'm Senior Constable Buckton... Charlie Buckton" The girl took her hand, and Charlie noticed the tattoo again

"Oh so sorry how rude of me... I'm Aisling O'Sullivan"

"Nice tattoo" Charlie commented while looking down on Aisling's wrist.

"Oh yeah that... I have a thing for monkeys and purple is my favourite colour" Aisling said continued with a grin, "again I'm really sorry about before"

Charlie shook her head "no worries... just don't make it a habit to go around knocking people over" she said wondering what had gotten into her, normally she would have been so annoyed by someone's carelessness, but for some reason she couldn't get mad. She knew very well why, it was all because of Joey making her feel all happy.

"I won't... I promise" Aisling smiled, relieved that she hadn't gotten into a lot of trouble knocking over at police officer.

"So where are you from...? I haven't seen you around here before" Charlie asked.

"I'm from Ireland... I just moved here for six months on an exchange program from my university... I have always dreamt of going to Australia... so I was so excited when I was offered to do this exchange program."

"Well welcome to Summer Bay then... hope you'll have a great time here." Charlie smiled warmly

"So do I" Aisling grinned back at her, pleased to have made a friend in the new town.

After Charlie had gotten her new bags of coffee and muffins, she had said farewell to the new girl and walked to her car, once again thinking about Joey. She really wished the day would be over soon so she could go back to her, she already missed her, being near her, touching and kissing her. She also needed to go home and make sure that Ruby and Leah were okay with what had happen to Martha.

She sighed by the thought of not seeing her friend again, and could feel the tears well up in her eyes. Turning the key in the ignition, she started the engine and drove back to the station lost in her thoughts.

She walked into the station and sat the bags with the refreshment's down on the counter so everybody could get some. She told Watson smiling that she was back and that the guys should just grab a cup and a muffin if they wanted, before walking into her office with her own muffin and a coffee

After she had changed out of the coffee soaked shirt and into a new one, she sat down at her table sighing when she saw the stacks of case files she had to read through. Just because there was a monster on the loose didn't mean that all other crime had stopped, which meant double amount of workload for her. A silent knock on the door disrupted her.

"Come in" she called as she wondered how at this rate she would ever get home. Watson came through the door with a muffin in her mouth and a coffee in her hand. She sat down in the chair opposite Charlie smiling

"So senior... Tell me about this girl?... did you get it all sorted with her?" Watson watched as Charlie's expression turned to shock.

"Ehh, what girl?" She really didn't want to tell Watson about Joey yet.

"You know what girl Senior... the one who ran from your office... and with you after her, after making a lame excuse so you could find her, and ever since you came back you haven't been able to stop smiling" Watson laughed, she wasn't letting Charlie off the hook that easy.

"Oh, is it that obvious" Charlie replied with a smile from ear to ear, she couldn't contain her happiness any longer.

"Yes it is that obvious... that and you hardly ever bring coffee and cake" Watson grinned biting into her muffin.

"I just met her... It is all new, but she is so beautiful and she is all I can think about... but Watson please don't tell anybody yet... It is still so new" Charlie smiled and took a sip of her coffee.

Watson stood to go back to work taking her coffee and the rest of her muffin

"Sure thing Senior... your secret is safe with me... and by the way thanks for the Charlie's happy refreshments, anytime you want to bring coffee and cake in again, feel free." Charlie grinned back at her and returned to her work, as Watson closed the door behind her.

***************************

Charlie closed the last of the case files. Over the last few hours she had read through a huge pile of cases and she was now feeling really tired. She stood to get herself another cup of coffee, these days it seemed as if she lived off coffee, her thought train was interrupted by her mobile phone rang.

"Senior Constable Buckton speaking...... Yes... you're saying what... what happened... how is that possible... when... okay ...Oh my god... I'll be right over" She hung the phone up and hurried out the door to get Watson.

"Watson... we've got to go now... get your stuff... the coroner just called... two bodies are missing... the last two victims are gone" Watson stood a little shocked at the information she had just received, grabbing her hat and jacket, she ran out the door to meet Charlie who was already standing at the patrol car waiting impatiently for her.

***************************

Charlie and Watson stood outside the coroner's office, in a small dark hallway, waiting for him to meet them. She knew that he was also very busy at the moment with bodies almost piling up in the morgue. The door from the autopsy room opened and she saw him approaching them.

He looked even more tired than he used to do. His grey hair was all messy, he hadn't shaved and he had black lines under his eyes.

"Senior... Constable..." he said nodding towards them while opening the door to his office. Signalling too them to come in."Ben" Charlie said simply walking into the office with Watson right behind her.

Inside the small lit office Charlie and Watson sat down in front of Ben's desk, while he tried to clear some stacks of paper form the desk before he sat down himself.

"Ben, what is this about the last two victims being missing?" Charlie began still not believing the bodies could have just disappeared.

Ben sat rubbing his forehead "Well Senior... it appears that we have lost the bodies of Ms. Amy Smith and Ms. Martha Mackenzie"

"Lost... how... have you misplaced them" Charlie continued still in disbelieve of what she have heard.

"I'm sorry Senior... but I wish that was it... we have looked everywhere... and called every funeral home to see if we have by mistake sent them there.... it just seem that they have disappeared into thin air" Ben said looking at the two officers. He still couldn't believe it. In his 20 years in this profession he had never experienced bodies that just disappeared before.

Charlie was still not able to wrap her head around the concept that two dead bodies could just up and disappear. "Ben is it possible that someone could have stolen the bodies"

Ben shook his head; the thought had crossed his mind, but he trusted his employees and not everybody could get into the morgue." Well senior it is possible, but I don't see how or who could have done it.... I completely trust my employees"

Charlie sighed at the thought of having more work and having to tell the next of kin about the missing bodies. "Ben we have to do a full investigation of this... and talk to every employee and who ever might have access to the morgue... I'm leaving Constable Watson here in charge of the investigation" Charlie nodded towards Watson.

Watson was a bit surprised that Charlie would leave her in charge of the investigation, but she also knew that Charlie had more than enough to focus on with the murder cases.

"Of course Senior... You will have me and my department's full cooperation... so we can solve this matter quickly" Ben stated trying to smile at the two police officers, but he felt utterly embarrassed about the incident. He felt that his own and the departments reputation had been tarnished a little, and he hoped that they could recover the bodies before it became publicly known that they were gone.

Charlie stood from her chair "I need to get back to the station, but do you mind showing Constable Watson here where the bodies were last seen, so she can get started" Ben stood up as well "of course not, I'll show her right away" Charlie nodded and turned towards Watson "as soon as I get back I'll send one of the other guys over to help you"

"Sure thing Senior... I'll get started right away" Watson simply replied, but couldn't help the sigh that escaped her at the thought that her shift had just gotten longer.

******************************

When Charlie returned to the station she had send one of her colleagues to help Watson and taken care of an incident involving some young kids being caught spray painting on the school. It was getting really late and she had to go over the case once more. She stood a long time with her mobile in her hand looking at Joey's number, that Joey had given her at the caravan park before she had drove back to the station.

She felt so sad when she texted Joey that her work was dragging out and she wouldn't be able to come by this evening. She had asked if they could meet up for lunch the next day, but she hadn't gotten any answer from Joey. She hoped that Joey didn't think she was standing her up.

She sighed hoping that she would hear from Joey soon and walked into the small conference room to look at all the crime photos. The lamp was still flickering annoyingly above her head. She was mad at Hugo for not changing the bloody light bulb... she had now asked him to do it three times. She made a mental note to tell their lazy janitor that she wasn't tolerating him not listening to her anymore. She couldn't focus on the crime scene photos with the flickering light, so she decided to take them with her into her own office.

She now stood watching the photos she had temporally hung on the back wall of her own office, when she heard her mobile beep in her pocket. She took it out and looked at the screen and instantly smiled.

'_Hi Charlie am so sorry that work is holding you up, was looking forward to seeing you again... miss you too.... __love to have lunch tomorrow with you... can't wait… xx Joey'_

After she had received the text from Joey, she seemed to have a new energy. She turned with a smile and Joey's image running through her mind, to look at the photos on the wall again. Suddenly her smile dropped as she stood looking in disbelieve at what she had for the first time noticed on the crime scene photos. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before, she couldn't believe anybody hasn't noticed it.

She checked the photos again and again to make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. Her heart stopped beating; she could feel her stomach turning. She sat down on her desk still looking at the photos, still not believing what she had discovered. She couldn't quite make out what to believe of it.

Confused and hurt she sat with tears running down her cheeks on the desk, with thoughts running wild through her mind. She picked up her jacket, bag and keys and ran out of the office. She needed some answers and she didn't care how late it was.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**

**After many request from Leon Writer here is the next chapter.**

**Thank you so so much for all you reviews, the really do make me smile.**

**I know that the word Charlie in the song I used in this chapter, really means something else, but just thought it suited the chapter if Charlie just means Charlie... lol... if you all get what I mean. I put a link to the song below.**

**watch?v=W0yuRwvK_so**

**Leon Writer ****I hope you're feeling better now.**

**Don't forget to review;**** and it is now possible to make anonymous reviews**

**Enjoy**

**Chapter Thirteen**.

Joey once again found herself laying on her bed in her trailer looking up at the ceiling daydreaming. She had her IPod hooked up to a pair of small speakers and right now she thought that every song that played reminded her of Charlie.

She couldn't stop thinking about Charlie, her sweet scent, her taste, her voice, her deep blue eyes, her deliciously shaped lips and her perfectly toned body. She was perfection itself, Joey thought to herself. She could hardly wait for Charlie to come back later; she longed to kiss her again. Being with Charlie made her feel whole again, it was like Charlie was the missing piece of herself that she had finally found.

However, at the same time she felt scared. She was scared of losing Charlie if she ever found out the truth about her, but she didn't know how to keep hiding it from her, and she didn't know how to tell her either.

How do you tell someone that you are really half vampire and it is your brother that has been killing all the women in Summer Bay and that she had been hunting him all this time, she couldn't shake the thoughts from her mind.

She sighed and stood up to get a cold beer from the fridge. All her angst and insecurities came rushing back. How could she even think about being with Charlie, when her brother was still on the loose and killing? She knew deep down that it would never work, but she couldn't keep away from her. It was like she was drawn to her. She needed her, she felt complete just being around her.

She had to keep tracking her brother and see if she could somehow stop him from killing anyone else, she just didn't know how. She knew she couldn't kill him. He still scared her, and she could feel within herself that his power and urges were getting stronger with every kill he made.

After swallowing the last of her beer, letting the alcohol calm her nerves a bit, she threw the bottle in the bin and returned to her bed. She picked up the sailing magazine that she had been reading, trying to read some more, but the events of the day had taken its toll on her and she quickly fell asleep.

She awoke a couple of hours later to the sound of beeping from her mobile. She picked up her phone and saw she had received a text from Charlie. With a huge smile on her face she flipped open her phone to read it.

'_Hi Jo I'm so sorry but work is all manic I won't be able to get out of here until very late. Can we meet tomorrow for lunch instead? I'm so sorry. I miss u. xx C.'_

Joey couldn't help but feel disappointed; she had been looking forward to seeing Charlie again. She looked out the window and saw that it was already dark outside, she looked at her clock and sighed still unhappy about Charlie not coming after all, and texted Charlie back.

She stood to make some dinner in the small kitchen area in the trailer. She looked in her almost empty fridge and decided to just make a quick sandwich while making a mental note that she really had to do some shopping the next day, she was really getting tired of sandwiches.

Joey sat eating her sandwich, drinking another beer with it listening to the music still playing on her IPod. She stood to turn the music up a bit when she heard the chorus from the song 'Charlie' playing from one of her favourite bands Red Hot Chili Peppers. It made her smile and she couldn't help but sing along on the chorus

"So much more than  
Charlie's waking me  
To my core and  
Charlie's shaking me  
Tell my story  
Charlie's making me  
And Charlie's making me smile.  
Oh oh now"

It wasn't her favorite song by them, but the mere fact that they sang the word Charlie in it made her listen to the song again, while she thought of Charlie's smile.

She sat down and ate the rest of her dinner still enjoying the rest of the song and daydreaming about Charlie, when a loud and angry knock on the door ripped her out of her thoughts.

A little scared she stood up, firstly turning down the volume a bit before going to open the door. She stood a while just looking nervously at the door, wondering who it could be, when the knocking came back and she heard Charlie's voice "Joey I know you are in there... I heard the music... please open up"

Happy and relieved to hear Charlie's voice she ripped the door open to let her in. "Charlie you came anyway... I missed you... come in..." Joey said not able to stop smiling.

Her smile disappeared when she saw Charlie's tearstained face "Charlie what's wrong?... What's happened?" Joey reached out for Charlie, pulling her into the trailer out of the rain that was just begining to pour.

Charlie pulled her arm away, still crying she looked at Joey "Please tell me it's not you Jo... please tell me you have got nothing to do with it?"

Joey stood shocked and confused looking at Charlie "Charlie what is this all about... I don't know what you are talking about" she said trying to give Charlie a hug, desperate to ease her obvious stress.

"Yes you do Joey... the murders is it you?... are you a part of it?" Charlie cried out pushing herself away from Joey.

"murders... what murders... I don't know what you're talking about" Joey lied trying to figure out what she was going to do.

"stop lying Joey... I saw you on the crime scene photos from the first four murders... I saw you at the crime scene too... remember... don't lie to me Joey... are you a part of it?" Charlie almost spat out trying to control her anger over Joey standing before her lying.

"No Charlie it's not me… I'm not a part of it" Joey cried praying that Charlie would believe her.

"I don't believe you Joey... why were you there... oh my god, was all of this between you and me… was this just to keep me away from the case?" Charlie was now so confused about the whole thing. She could see the fear in Joey's eyes. There was something she wasn't telling her.

"Charlie please believe me... it's not me... I really like you Charlie... please believe me... please" Joey sobbed trying to look at Charlie.

"Then why were you there Joey?... I have a hard time believing you... you're at all the crime scenes except the last two... last night was very convenient alibi for you to have... you sleeping over at a cops place... and the other you were at my place too when you brought Ruby home... what are you not telling me Joey"

"Charlie I can't tell you... but please believe me... I didn't do it... please Charlie I really like you... I wouldn't do that to you... please Charlie" Joey cried, she tried to reach for Charlie, but instead she watched through bleary eyes as Charlie moved away from her again.

"What can't you tell me Joey?... you better tell me or I will arrest you for obstructing a police investigation" Charlie stood with her arms crossed watching Joey cry. She felt her heart break at the sight, but she couldn't figure out what was happening.

"I can't Charlie... you wouldn't believe me... please I don't want to lose you" Joey begged still crying and shaking.

"Try me Joey.... if you don't tell me you WILL lose me" Charlie yelled at Joey frustrated at the whole situation.

"I can't Charlie... I can't..." Joey yelled back frustrated about the whole thing and feeling pressured by Charlie. She was sure if she told her the truth that Charlie would run.

"Why... just tell me now what it is you're hiding... or I'll have to take you down to the station" Charlie yelled taking her handcuffs in her hand.

"No please Charlie don't... Charlie I can't tell you.... please don't make me" Joey begged.

"Joey Tell me now... This is your last chance" Charlie angrily said talking a step towards Joey.

Joey looked into Charlie's eyes. She knew she couldn't hide the truth anymore "Charlie I can't tell y.... okay… look I will show you" She sighed defeated and walked towards Charlie.

"What do you mean you'll show me" Charlie asked looking into Joeys tearstained eyes. Before she knew what had happening, she felt Joey's lips on her own, Joey took her hands holding them tight out to each side and pressed her up against the wall.

At first she tried to fight the urge to kiss her back, she tried to force herself to push Joey away, but Joey was too strong and the feeling of Joeys lips pressed against her own still gave her butterflies. She couldn't fight the attraction anymore as she started to respond to Joey's kiss. She felt Joey stroking her lips with her tongue asking permission to enter her mouth. She parted her lips and their tongues started dancing around each other's mouth tasting each other. She let her tongue taste and explore the inside of Joey's mouth when her tongue grazed something she had never felt before.

Drawing back, she looked questioningly at Joey, instantly noticing the tears falling worriedly down her cheeks. "Joey you have...." it was all she could say as she stood in confusion.

"Charlie please don't be mad... please don't run" Joey cried while releasing Charlie from her grip but staying close to her.

"Joey you have... what is this?... who are you?" Charlie said while raising her hand to Joeys lips parting them slightly to see her small fangs as Joey stood helplessly watching the woman she was quickly falling for examine her with uncertainty.

With tears still streaming down her face Joey simply replied "I'm... I'm half vampire... my brother is the one who has been killing all those women... I've been trying to find him to stop him...I'm... I'm so sorry Charlie... please don't hate me"

"Vampire... your brother.... Joey what are you talking about?" Charlie stood frozen to the spot Joey had freed her to, not believing what she had just heard.

"I'm a half vampire... a hybrid... my brother is a full vampire... he's the one who has been killing all those women... every time I found a new murdered victim I called the police anonymously and I don't know why but I just stayed around making sure you came, but ever since I saw you at the first murder scene I haven't been able to stay away... I have fallen for you Charlie" Joey cried out.

Charlie's mind was running wild with all the information; she couldn't believe what she had just heard. Suddenly she felt the need to get out of the trailer.

With tears running down her face she looked to Joey "I'm sorry Joey... this is... this is just a little too much... and unreal...I... I... I don't think I can do this" She turned toward the door to leave.

"Charlie please don't go... please stay" Joey begged trying to grab a hold of Charlie's arm before she walked out the door, but she was too late. Crying, she watched Charlie run off into the dark miserable night to get away from her. Heartbroken she cried out Charlie's name one more time before her emotions completely consumed her, causing her to fall to the ground not caring who could see her at her weakest.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N**

**Hi wanted to post the next chapter in the story. I used a lot of music in this chapter to try and tell the girls struggle. Really not sure it worked =/**

**I put links to the songs below so you can all listen to them.**

**Leon Writer: my MSPW a little read for you, now that you're home. And congrats with everything...I'm so happy for you :)**

**Jsco81: hope you'll find this one interesting too.**

**Purplemonkeyys: Can't promise you anything :) This chapter is for you... hope you'll return to us soon.**

**LivingtheDays: Wow you read it all in one go... hope you like this chapter too**** :)**

**Erinskies: Thanks for your kind words... hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.**

**1818: My guardian angel... hope you'll still find it interesting... and I don't disappoint you.**

**Kgirl36: So glad you like the story... hope you'll like this chapter too:)**

**AuthorW: The truth is out now... You'll just have to wait and read to find out what happens... hope you'll like it though :)**

**Havtorn: Nice to get a Danish review :)...here is a little reading for you when you return from you weekend... hope you had a great trip:)**

**M: that is not a bad suggestion... you should write a story you got the imagination :)**

**Funkyshaz57: Hope I don't disappoint you with this chapter... Happy that you liked the last one :)**

**Don't forget to review. Value all your opinions... they make me smile :)**

**Enjoy!**

Song 1: watch?v=Rawtskpl5O4

Song 2 : watch?v=Txk0Xj4Stk8

Song 3: watch?v=emC15LJAjhc

Song 4 : watch?v=x4vLxRdihy0

**Chapter fourteen**

Charlie sat in her car heartbroken looking out the front window at the ocean, the darkness and rain distorting her view of it, she couldn't even see it really but she could hear it, she could still hear the waves hitting the shore. The sound of the waves always seemed to calm her down. She felt so confused by Joey's confession. She knew she had to go back and talk to her about her brother and the killings, but right now she couldn't. She didn't know what to think about it all. She was attracted to Joey, but the whole vampire story scared her. If she hadn't seen the fangs she would have thought that Joey was mentally unstable.

She was thinking about getting Watson to bring Joey in to the station the next day and interrogate her, but she knew she couldn't do that to her.

She turned on the radio in her car, but there were no music playing, only news about the worst dust storm Australia had ever experienced that had hit the opposite side of the country. She flicked through the stations but found no music so she pressed play on the CD player and Leann Rimes started to sing. She had forgotten about the Leann Rimes, the greatest hits CD being in her car player, It was one she had bought a long time ago in a service station, when she and Ruby had been driving to the city to visit their dad.

She turned up the volume as she sat listening to the end of the song 'can't fight the moonlight'. The next song started and Charlie froze as she sat there letting the tears run unashamed down her face as she listened to the song playing.

"How do I,  
Get through the night without you?  
If I had to live without you,  
What kind of life would that be?  
Oh, I  
I need you in my arms, need you to hold,  
You're my world, my heart, my soul,  
If you ever leave,  
Baby you would take away everything good in my life,"

The chorus came and she couldn't hold it back any more, and she broke down crying hard into her hands.

"And tell me now  
How do I live without you?  
I want to know,  
How do I breathe without you?  
If you ever go,  
How do I ever, ever survive?  
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?"

Thinking of the events of the day, it had been an emotional rollercoaster ride all day. Waking up with Joey in the morning, her dear friend Martha being found murdered, Kissing Joey followed by Joey running away from her, searching for Joey to talk things through and kissing her again, falling in love with Joey and now running from her heartbroken and confused.

"Without you,  
There'd be no sun in my sky,  
There would be no love in my life,  
There'd be no world left for me.  
And I,  
Baby I don't know what I would do,  
I'd be lost if I lost you,  
If you ever leave,  
Baby you would take away everything real in my life"

"And tell me now,  
How do I live without you?  
I want to know,  
How do I breathe without you?  
If you ever go,  
How do I ever, ever survive?  
How do I, how do I, oh how do I live?

Please tell me baby,  
How do I go on?"

All of a sudden Charlie was brought back to reality when she heard a loud scream, followed by someone frantically knocking on her passenger window "Please help me... please let me in... someone is following me... please"

Charlie quickly dried her eyes and opened the window to see who it was and saw the young Irish girl looking in the window with horror written all over her face "Aisling... what is it?... who is following you" She said while unlocking the door so Aisling could get in.

Aisling quickly jumped in the car closed the window and locked the door "please drive... before they find me" she couldn't help shaking

"Who'll find you Aisling... who is after you" Charlie asked concerned when she saw the young girl shaking from pure fear.

"two men... they were following me... one of them tried to grab me... but when he saw my golden cross necklace he pulled back... I was so scared I just ran as fast as I could... they ran after me... their laugh was so scary... please go before they find me" She couldn't stop shaking; she had never felt so scared in her whole life.

Charlie stroke the other girls arm trying to calm her down a little "please tell me what happened"

"Can you please drive me home... I'm so scared" Aisling asked and looked up into Charlie's eyes. She saw they were red and puffy and thought that she must be upset about the girl that was found murdered earlier that morning, as her exchange mom had been when she had heard about the murder.

"okay I'll drive you home... then we can talk about what happen there... where do you live" she asked still gently stroking the girls arm to calm her.

"I live at Irene Roberts' house... the address is 12 Pacific Road" Aisling said feeling a little better now knowing she would get home safely.

"I know where it is…. Let's get you home now okay" Charlie said giving Aisling a reassuring smile while turning the key in the ignition and starting the car.

She parked outside Irene's house, turned off the car and looked at Aisling "you're home now… let's get you inside… come on"

Aisling simply nodded and opened the car door. Charlie held her arm around Aisling to comfort her, while they walked up to the house. As they stood at the front door, Aisling was still shaking so much she had difficulties getting the key in the door to unlock it. Charlie was about to ask Aisling if she should help her when the door sprung open and Irene stood in front of them "there you are love… I've been worried about you… where have you been?"

The look of concern and worry became even bigger when she saw Charlie standing behind Aisling in her uniform "Charlie what are you doing here… has something happened?"

Aisling still stood there shocked about the incident, she wasn't able to speak, she just looked up at Charlie. Charlie got the hint and with a reassuring smile she turned her attention back to Irene "Everything is fine… a couple of guys were hassling Aisling… she got scared… she found me at the beach… and I just drove her home… can we come in… she is a little shook up about the whole thing.. I haven't been able to get her to tell me exactly what happened yet"

"Yes sure... Come in… oh love are you okay" Irene spoke and took her arms around Aisling guiding her in to the living room sitting her on the couch.

As they sat down Aisling broke down crying. Irene continued to hold and comfort her, stroking her back "ohh dear…. What happen to you… who scared you" Confused she looked up on Charlie again.

Charlie shook her head "Irene I don't know who it is, I didn't see them myself… I was hoping that Aisling could give me a description of them and tell me a little more about what happened"

Irene looked back at Aisling who now just sat staring out into the room, still trembling and clutching the pillow she had taken into her arms.

Irene turned back to look at Charlie who she thought looked like something the cat had dragged in. She looked really tired; she was pale and her eyes red and swollen. Working on Martha's case couldn't be easy for her, she thought to herself. "Charlie you look exhausted and Aisling is really shaken up, would it be okay if you talk to her tomorrow?... I could bring her down to the station tomorrow if you like?"

Charlie sighed; she knew Irene was right "Yes I guess that would be okay... I'll give you a call tomorrow to see how she is… Take care of her okay?… and if anything else happens then you know how to reach me... okay?"

"Sure thing love… now you go home and get some rest" Irene tried to stand up to let Charlie out, but Aisling just grabbed her hand and held onto it.

"I'll let myself out Irene… just take care of her" Charlie said before she turned around to walk out to her car.

*************************

Joey sat heartbroken up against the door, on the floor, in her trailer still crying. She felt so lonely and broken. In the background she heard the Evanescence song missing playing, she sat listening to some of the words.

"I breathe deep and cry out;  
"Isn't something missing?  
Isn't someone missing me?"

Even though I'm the sacrifice,  
You won't try for me, not now.  
Though I'd die to know you love me,  
I'm all alone.  
Isn't someone missing me?

And if I bleed, I'll bleed,  
Knowing you don't care.  
And if I sleep just to dream of you  
I'll wake without you there,  
Isn't something missing?

Even though I'm the sacrifice,  
You won't try for me, not now.  
Though I'd die to know you love me,  
I'm all alone.  
Isn't someone missing me?"

She took her head in her hands crying into them. Sat there she couldn't help but wonder why life was treating her this way, if there was a reason why she wasn't allowed even the slightest amount of happiness, to be loved and love back or if she was just meant to wander through life alone and miserable. Perhaps her only purpose in life was to follow her brother, seen as they were connected in this weird kind of way. She couldn't figure out how to stop him, it would be easier if she could just kill him.

Sighing she whipped her tears away and lent her head back up against the door looking up at the ceiling. Sat like this a few minutes taking some deep breaths trying to calm herself, she listened to the next Evanescence song that started to play on her IPod.

"How can you see into my eyes like open doors?  
Leading you down into my core  
Where I've become so numb

Without a soul  
My spirit's sleeping somewhere cold  
Until you find it there and lead it back home

[wake me up] Wake me up inside  
[I can't wake up] Wake me up inside  
[Save me] Call my name and save me from the dark  
[Wake me up] Bid my blood to run  
[I can't wake up] Before I come undone  
[Save me] Save me from the nothing I've become

Now that I know what I'm without  
You can't just leave me  
Breathe into me and make me real  
Bring me  
To life

[wake me up] Wake me up inside  
[I can't wake up] Wake me up inside  
[Save me] Call my name and save me from the dark  
[Wake me up] Bid my blood to run  
[I can't wake up] Before I come undone  
[Save me] Save me from the nothing I've become

Bring me to life  
[I've been living a lie..There's nothing inside]  
Bring me to life

Frozen inside without your touch  
Without your love, darling  
Only you are the life among the dead"

As Joey sat there, she realized that Charlie was the one for her. In the short time she had known Charlie she had never felt so alive, she had brought her to life. She had to do something to show how she felt for her. She stood up got her jacket and ran out the trailer, not caring that the door didn't close behind her leaving the rest of the song to play out the door as she ran off into the rain to find Charlie.

"[All of this I, I can't believe I couldn't see  
Kept in the dark, but you were there in front of me]

I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems  
Got to open my eyes to everything

[Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul]  
Don't let me die here(It most be something wrong)  
Bring me to life

[wake me up] Wake me up inside  
[I can't wake up] Wake me up inside  
[Save me] Call my name and save me from the dark  
[Wake me up] Bid my blood to run  
[I can't wake up] Before I come undone  
[Save me] Save me from the nothing I've become

Bring me to life  
[I've been living a lie.. There's nothing inside]  
Bring me to life"

***********************

Charlie sat in her car outside Irene's house thinking about Aisling. She had been so shocked and scared. She couldn't stop thinking about the one sentence she had said to her in the car. The words Aisling had said about that one of the guys had pulled back when he had seen her golden cross necklace kept running around in her head over and over again. She had a feeling that the guys were somehow connected to the murders and Joey. It gave her goose bumps and she instantly felt cold. She turned the key in the ignition to warm up the car.

Instantly the Leann Rimes CD started to play again. She noticed the song playing, it was one of her favorite Leanne Rimes songs. It reminded her of one of her favorite movies; she smiled at the thought of the movie and thought to herself who didn't like a movie with hot girls dancing on a bar. She sat in the car listening to the song while getting warmer.

"Know all about  
About your reputation  
And how it's bound to be a heartbreak situation  
But I can't help it if I'm helpless  
every time that I'm where you are  
You walk in and my strength walks out the door  
Say my name and I can't fight it anymore  
Oh I know, I should go  
But I need your touch just too damn much

Loving you, isn't really something I should do  
Shouldn't wanna spend my time with you, yeah  
Well I should try to be strong  
But baby you're the right kind of wrong  
Yeah baby you're the right kind of wrong

it Might be a mistake  
A mistake I'm making  
But what you're giving I am happy to be taking  
Cause no one's ever made me feel  
The way I feel when I'm in your arms  
They say you're something I should do without  
They don't know what goes on  
When the lights go out  
There's no way to explain  
All the pleasure is worth all the pain

Loving you isn't really something I should do yeahey.  
Shouldn't wanna spend my time with you  
Well I should try to be strong  
But baby you're the right kind of wrong  
Yeah baby you're the right kind of wrong"

As the chorus played again her mind wandered back to Joey. She let out a little smile, put the car in gear and drove off, while humming to the song, she knew what she had to do now, and there were no doubt in her mind anymore.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N**

**Hi just posting a new chapter for this story. So sorry you all had to wait for so long, life has been crazy and busy. I will try to do better but as my appology I have written an extra long chapter for you all. Hope you like and forgive me.**

**I've posted a link for the song so you all can listen.**

**This Chapter is for Sparkles.**

**Enjoy and dont forget to review :)**

.com/watch?v=pIYvKCfqGB4

**Chapter fifteen**

Charlie found herself parking the car at the caravan park again. She quickly got out of the car. She zipped her jacket up and pulled the collars tight around her neck to shield her a bit from the rain, before she started walking fast, almost running, towards Joey's trailer. She came to an instant halt when she saw Joey running out of her trailer leaving the door open behind her. Joey stopped running the minute she saw Charlie.

In the rain they stood still looking at each other, their eyes never looking away as they slowly walked towards each other. Before they knew it, they stood inches apart looking deep into each other's eyes, both red and swollen from crying, searching for an answer to their confusion.

"Joey" "Charlie" they both spoke out loud at the same time. They both couldn't help but smile at it.

"Joey, I think we should talk" Charlie finally managed to speak, still lost in Joey's big brown eyes.

Joey simply nodded in response to Charlie, she couldn't talk, she was mesmerized by Charlie's beauty. Even though Charlie was soaking wet and her hair hung wet into her face, her eyes red and puffy, she still looked absolutely beautiful to Joey.

She was brought out of her trance when she noticed Charlie tremble and wrap her arms around herself to keep warm. "Charlie you're cold" she said more as a statement than a question.

"Let's go inside my trailer to talk.... if you want to?" She continued and pointed towards the trailer, now realising that the door wasn't closed. She looked back at Charlie, searching for an answer in her eyes, hoping that she would come inside with her.

Charlie stood trying to keep herself warm with her arms wrapped around herself looking at Joey standing, all soaked from the rain, in front of her, thinking to herself that she looked so beautiful even with the tear-stained face and wet hair clinging to it."Yeah sure... let's get out of the rain" she simply replied to Joey's question.

Joey felt very relieved, she smiled nervously at Charlie and turned around and walked back towards the trailer. Half way there she sensed that Charlie still hadn't moved, a little nervous she turned around "You coming?" she asked afraid that Charlie would run away again.

Charlie stood still biting her lower lips nervously watching Joey walk back to her trailer. She didn't know why she was suddenly just frozen to the spot, all the courage and determination she had when she was sitting in her car listening to LeAnn Rimes had disappeared. She heard Joey ask her if she was coming and could see how nervous and scared she looked.

"Oh yeah, of course" was all she could say while slowly walking towards Joey and her trailer. Inside the trailer they both just stood watching each other shyly, neither of them not knowing what to say.

**********

"You're soaking wet Charlie, let me take you jacket... wait here I'll just get you a towel so you can dry yourself" Joey said thankful that she had been able to break the awkward silence, turning around to get a clean towel for Charlie from the closet.

"Thank you Joey" was all Charlie could say while taking her jacket off.

Giving her jacket to Joey with her right hand while taking the towel Joey was offering with her left, their fingers met briefly and it instantly gave her a tingling feeling and her butterflies returned. Shyly she looked away while starting to dry her hair wondering why Joey could have this effect on her, and at the same time her story scared her.

Charlie watched as Joey hung up both their jackets to dry on the coat hanger mounted on the wall of the trailer, before taking off her wet t-shirt and starting to dry herself with a towel with her back to Charlie. Charlie couldn't take her eyes off Joey's bare back. She noticed a scar on Joey's right shoulder and without thinking she reached out and slowly touched the scar with her fingers, gently stroking it.

Joey froze when she instantly felt Charlie's fingers touch her and start running over the scar on her shoulder. The feeling of Charlie's fingers gave her a tingling sensation through her body. Afraid to turn, she just stood there enjoying the feeling of Charlie's touch.

"What.... what happened to you Joey?" Charlie had now stopped stroking the scar but still had her fingers on it.

Still not able to turn around, Joey quietly replied "it... it happened when I tried to stop my brother once, but he was too strong"

"What did he do to you?" Charlie asked still having her hand on Joey's shoulder now moving closer dropping the towel, she had in her other hand, to the floor and putting it on Joey's waist trying to turn her gently around.

Joey could now feel Charlie standing really close behind her. She felt Charlie put her other hand on her waist, trying to turn her around. Joey swallowed hard and did what Charlie wanted, turning slowly around keeping her towel in front of her.

Not able to speak she just stood there looking into Charlie's beautiful blue eyes. Tears started to fall silently down her cheeks. She didn't know if she cried because of the thought of what her brother had done or of being so close to Charlie again.

"Ohh Joey, what did he do to you? Please talk to me" Charlie said as she moved her hand to Joey's face, gently stroking Joey's cheeks with her thumb, wiping away her tears. Seeing Joey cry just broke her heart, she felt the need to comfort her. She knew she couldn't stay away from Joey, but she also needed Joey to tell her story to her, so she could understand her and this whole situation better.

"I'm scared Charlie... I can't tell you... I'm scared you'll run away from me again" Joey sobbed.

"Shhhh Joey, I won't run from you again. Just tell me okay" then Charlie took Joey in her arms comforting her and stroking her bare back to get her to relax a little.

"You promise?" Joey cried into Charlie's neck, holding her tightly, not wanting her to run again.

Charlie moved her head back a bit still holding around Joey's waist "Joey look at me. I promise I won't run, but please you need to talk to me, we need to talk about it all okay?"

Still embracing, they stood looking deep into each other's eyes. Without any thought, they both moved their heads towards each other and met in a deep passionate kiss.

They drew back resting their foreheads against each other, both smiling and looking into each other's eyes again, searching for a response, both scared of being let down again, but they both found a look of love and relief.

Suddenly very aware of holding an half naked Joey in her arms, Charlie blushed at the thoughts running through her mind "uhmm Joey perhaps you should put a shirt on and we can talk"

Joey blushed too, now being very aware that the small towel that had been covering her breasts had fallen to the floor when they had kissed. "Oh sorry Charlie... I'll just get dressed"

"You don't have to be sorry, I really don't mind you without clothes Joey, but I don't think I would be able to keep my hands off you if you're gonna be half naked while we talk" Charlie said smiling coyly.

Joey couldn't help but smile back "well in that case I better be getting dressed." She turned to get a dry shirt from the closet. Still a little shy about it all she held her arms in front of her covering her breast as she walked over to put a new shirt on.

*********

Minutes later they sat in front of each other, both holding a cup of coffee in their hands, and both not sure of how or where to start. Joey sat nervously fiddling with her coffee cup, looking into it as if she could find the answers to life's mysteries in its depths. She felt Charlie putting her hand on hers and as she looked up, she saw Charlie smiling at her.

"Joey please talk to me. Tell me about yourself and your brother, I'm trying to understand this whole vampi... ehmm... vampire thing" Charlie still had trouble saying the vampire word, it just seemed so unreal to her.

Joey took Charlie's hands, entwining their fingers, she sat there looking at Charlie trying to calm herself before she began telling Charlie her whole sad life story.

Charlie sat listening to Joey's story, tears falling down her cheeks. Her story was heartbreaking and sad. Every time Joey started crying, she sat stroking her hands with her thumbs, trying to comfort her, until she was ready to continue.

When Joey had finished telling her story to Charlie, she felt both relieved and scared. She was relieved that, for the first time, she had been able to be honest and tell someone about herself but scared that Charlie would run away again. With tears in her eyes, she looked up at Charlie "So now you know my story, please don't run away from me again Charlie"

"Joey I'm not gonna run away again, I told you that... ok... but I have some questions, is that okay?" Charlie tenderly asked giving Joey's hands a little squeeze.

Joey took a firmer grip of Charlie's hands simply nodding back to answer her. Scared of the questions to come she started to shiver. Charlie noticed and got up and sat beside her, taking Joey's hands in her own again "Joey you've got nothing to worry about. I'm not going anywhere. I just need to understand it all okay?"

"Jo, do you know where your brother is?" Charlie started her questions.

"No, I can't find him. Why?" Joey, a little confused by the question, asked back. She hadn't expected Charlie to ask that question.

"Because he is a killer and I have to arrest him so he doesn't kill any more girls" Charlie calmly said.

"No Charlie. You can't go after him, it's too dangerous, he will kill you. Please let me try and find him so I can stop him. Please Charlie, promise me that you won't try to find him" Joey said panicking at the thought of Brett harming Charlie in any way.

"Joey it's my job. I have to try and find him and stop him" Charlie calmly said to Joey again, squeezing her hand to reassure her.

"Charlie haven't you heard anything I've told you. He is dangerous, you can't get him, he's too powerful, he will kill you, believe me I have tried, that's why I have that scar on my shoulder" Joey said desperately, tears running down her cheeks again.

"What happened to you Jo? What did he do to you?" Charlie asked stroking Joey's arm to calm her down.

"I found him one evening, he had captured this young girl and was about to feed on her. I tried to stop him, we fought but he was too strong, he threw me through a window and I got cut by a piece of glass that got stuck in my shoulder. He got hurt too. I tried to get up and get to the girl to free her but he was too fast. He grabbed me again and threw me against a wall and the glass cut me deeper. Charlie, I watched him plunge his teeth into the girl and suck the life out of her. I watched him get stronger, while I got weaker. I got scared so I ran. Charlie I've tried to find him and stop him but he is so strong and I can feel he is getting stronger every time he kills another girl. Charlie please promise me you won't try to find and stop him, let me try again please." Joey sobbed feeling awful about not being able to stop her brother's killing and afraid that she would lose Charlie if she went after Brett.

"Joey, is there no way to stop him at all? He is not immortal is he? So somehow we must be able to stop him right?" Charlie put her arm around Joey and pulled her into a hug to comfort her.

"Please Charlie let me try and find him... okay? He is still my brother. Please let me try and stop him again. I don't want you or anybody else to get hurt trying to stop him" Joey said sobbing into Charlie's shoulder.

"Shhhh Jo. It's okay, we will find a way okay?" Charlie said hugging Joey and stroking her back, wondering if Brett could be stopped.

"Joey I have to ask you this, but have you ever killed anybody?" Charlie tightened her embrace, a little scared of Joey's answer.

"God no Charlie, I could never do that. I have only killed small animals. That time I got hurt fighting Brett, I was so weak when I got home and when we feed on fresh blood we heal faster, so before I knew what I was doing I sat feasting on the neighbour's dog. It wasn't until I had recovered a bit, that I realised what I had done. I just sat looking at the name tag, SparkIes, for a long time, before I got up and buried the dog. I kept the name tag, I always carry it around with me to remind me of what I've done. Every time I saw the sad look on the neighbour's children because they couldn't find their dog, or the Wanted poster they had put up all over the neighbourhood, I felt even guiltier, so I decided to move and ever since then I have only fed on small stray animals and then only if it was absolutely necessary. But Charlie I could never take the life of another human being, please trust me?" Joey started crying into Charlie's shoulder holding on to Charlie, afraid that she would leave her now she heard what she had done.

They sat embracing each other for a while. "Jo, is all this the reason why you ran away the evening you came home with Ruby, because both you and Ruby said that there were two guys" Charlie asked pulling away from the embrace looking at Joey.

"Yes they were Brett's goons, they find the women for him. I was afraid to stay that evening, because I didn't know how to tell you the truth and I couldn't lie to you. I'm so sorry Charlie, that's why I've been running away from you. I've been afraid to tell you the truth and afraid that I would turn out like my mother. Charlie I lov... I've never felt like this about anybody before" Joey said searching for a response in Charlie's eyes.

Charlie sat still, looking at Joey. Her heart was beating hard in her chest, she couldn't believe that Joey had almost said that she loved her. A huge smile spread across her face "Joey I'm in love with you, my feelings for you are so strong, you're all I can think about, I can hardly breathe whenever you're around, but I don't wanna rush things okay? Let's take it slow, figure out how to stop your brother first and see what happens, okay?"

Joey smiled through the tears "I would like that Charlie. I feel the same way about you"

Charlie took her hands cupping Joey's face, stroking away the tears on her cheeks with her thumbs, before pulling her in for a tender and soft kiss. After a while they both pulled apart smiling. They sat with their foreheads resting against each other enjoying the feeling of being so close to each other, listening to the iPod that was still playing in the background, which neither of them had noticed before now.

Charlie sighed and moved away from the embrace, immediately missing the feel of Joey's body "Joey I really need to go home and get a couple of hours sleep before I have to be back at work, but can we still meet up for lunch tomorrow?"

"Of course, I would love that" Joey said smiling but feeling a little sad that Charlie was leaving, she was going to miss her.

She stood near the door watching Charlie put on her jacket getting ready to go home. Both not really ready to be apart yet, they just stood there in silence watching each other, holding hands. A new song started to play on the iPod.

"I know you've suffered,  
But I don't want you to hide,  
It's cold and loveless,  
I won't let you be denied

Soothing,  
I'll make you feel pure,  
Trust me,  
You can be sure

I want to reconcile the violence in your heart  
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,  
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,  
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart"

They were both listening to the song, both feeling as they were written for them. Suddenly the both plunged towards each other kissing hard. Charlie turned Joey around pushing her against the wall, kissing along her neck to her earlobe and back.

"You trick your lovers,  
That you're wicked and divine,  
You may be a sinner,  
But your innocence is mine

Please me,  
Show me how it's done,  
Tease me,  
You are the one

I want to reconcile the violence in your heart,  
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,  
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,  
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart"

Joey couldn't hold back, she wanted to feel Charlie closer so she grabbed her around the waist pulling them closer to each other. Their legs entwined. She could feel Charlie's thigh rubbing against her, it turned her on even more and she started to take off Charlie's jacket. Charlie kissed her harder and started to lift up her shirt. Within minutes both their shirts were off, tossed to the floor. The feel of Charlie kissing and nibbling down her neck and collarbone, while at the same time cupping one of her breasts, set her insides on fire.

By now the song had faded into the background, she could only focus on Charlie. She took Charlie's face in her hands and started to kiss her again. With a swift move Charlie had picked her up and started to carry her towards the bed. She put her legs around Charlie's waist, kissing her feverishly, letting their tongues dance in each other's mouths.

Charlie put Joey down onto the bed, still kissing her. She started to kiss Joey's neck again moving down towards her beautiful breast, when she heard Joey speak. "Charlie wait… please wait a minute"

She looked up at Joey a little confused "What is it Jo?"

"Charlie it's just that … ehmm… it is just that this is my first… you know… and I'm a little scared okay. I don't know what to do" Joey whispered.

"Ohh Joey, I'm your first woman?" Charlie asked gently kissing Joey's lips

"No Charlie, you're my first everything and I'm a bit scared. I don't want to mess everything up" Joey answered unsure of where to look, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Joey look at me. It's okay. Nothing to be embarrassed about okay, this can wait until you're ready. I'm not going anywhere ok?" Charlie softly spoke while turning Joey's head back so she could look into her eyes.

"Okay. Thank you. Can we just stay like this for a little bit" Joey asked quietly

"Of course Jo" Charlie answered, giving Joey a soft kiss before lying down beside her and cuddling into her.

They lay wrapped around each other listening to the music playing, relaxing and enjoying the feel of being so close to each other's bodies, and before long they were both fast asleep.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N**

**Hi I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a happy and fun new years eve.**

**Thank you so much for all the kind reviews the really do make me smile and encourage me to keep writing :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter sixteen**

Charlie was woken by the shrill sound of her mobile phone ringing. At first she didn't recognise where she was, but then she noticed Joey's arm stretched out over her stomach and the events from a couple of hours earlier came flooding back. She couldn't help but smile when she turned her head and looked at Joey sleeping next to her.

Her mobile began to ring again, and she very slowly moved Joey's arm, so as not to wake her, to reach for it. But by the time she had finally gotten it out of her jacket pocket, the ringing had stopped. She looked at the display and saw that it was Ruby that had called both times.

She got up and stood awhile debating with herself whether she should call Ruby back or just go back to bed with Joey for a little bit longer. She had to get back to work at some point but she really wasn't ready to part from her yet.

While standing with her mobile in her hand, looking at a sleeping Joey, it rang again. She looked at the display and saw Ruby's name on it. She sighed, she knew that Ruby was probably really worried about her, she should have sent her a text last night, but she had forgotten all about it when she had gone back to talk to Joey. She pressed the answer button and put the phone up to her ear.

"Hi Rubes" was all she managed to say before she got interrupted by Ruby's frantic voice.

"Charlie... where are you? Are you okay? You didn't come home last night and you didn't call, has something happened?"

"Sorry Rubes. Everything is okay, it just got really late last night and I fell asleep at Joey's. Sorry I didn't text you" Charlie spoke quietly, trying not to wake Joey.

"At Joey's... wait Charlz, does that mean that you two finally?... are you two like going out now?" Ruby almost shrieked into the phone.

"Rubes I don't know. I hope so. I'll tell you all about when I get home okay? It won't be long. Then we can sit down and talk during breakfast before I have to go to work. Okay?" Charlie said smiling.

"Okay Charlz but I wanna know every detail. I'll get started on breakfast then. Don't be too long" Ruby said a little disappointed that Charlie wouldn't tell her everything on the phone.

"Ok Rubes. I won't. I'll see you in a bit" Charlie said hanging up the phone, thinking about how to wake Joey to tell her she had to leave, even though she really didn't feel like it.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Joey's voice "What don't you know? and what do you hope for?"

"Omg. Joey you startled me" Charlie turned around and saw Joey sit up in her bed covering her bare breasts with the covers, rubbing her eyes. Charlie reached down to the floor and picked up her shirt from the floor to cover herself, even though she still had her sports bra on, she felt naked and exposed. Both girls looked shyly at each other, not feeling comfortable being half naked in front of each other yet.

"So Charlie were you just gonna leave without saying goodbye?" Joey asked nervously, rising from the bed, with the covers wrapped around her, to get a shirt.

Smiling, Charlie walked over to Joey and put her arms around her neck "no no of course not Jo. I was gonna wake you"

Joey smiled back and put her arms around Charlie's waist under the open shirt "Good. Now what don't you know?"

Charlie looked away feeling a little nervous, not quite knowing how and what to say "well ehhm it was Ruby on the phone, she was just worried about me not coming home last night" she decided to say.

"And..." Joey simply said raising her right eyebrow looking at Charlie. She could feel that there was more to it than what Charlie had just said.

"And... ehhhmm she just got so excited when she heard I slept here and she wanted to know if we're... ehhmm... if we're together now" Charlie almost whispered looking shyly and nervously back at Joey.

Joey just stood smiling, showing her dimples. She thought Charlie looked absolutely adorable when she was shy and nervous "well I hope this will answer your question" she replied pulling Charlie in and kissing her passionately.

Charlie pulled back resting her head on Joey's head trying to catch her breath after the kiss. She looked into Joey's big brown eyes and all she could say was "Wow"

They stood getting lost into pools of blue and brown, not saying anything, just enjoying the closeness of each other, when Charlie's mobile rang again. Charlie sighed, took out her mobile from the pocket in her trousers and looked at the screen.

"Hi Rubes" Charlie sighed

"Charlie I thought you said you were gonna come home for breakfast and not lunch, what is taking you so long?" Ruby asked impatiently.

"Yeah Rubes, I'll be there in five okay? See you in bit" Charlie simply said hanging up the phone.

Frowning she looked at Joey and began to get dressed "I've really got to go home and talk to Ruby, get a shower and some breakfast before I have to go to work. Are we still on for lunch?"

"Yeah sure, wouldn't miss it for a thing. What time" Joey said putting on a tight black tank top, showing off her cleavage and toned arms

Charlie just stood there mesmerised by Joey's beauty. She couldn't take her eyes off her.

"Hello, earth to Charlie" Joey grinned.

"Uhmm what." Charlie blushed when she realised she had been caught ogling Joey.

"I just asked what time you wanna meet up for lunch?" Joey laughed.

"Let's meet in the Diner at One. Is that okay for you?" Charlie asked putting on her jacket, getting ready to leave.

"One is perfect" Joey smiled, but couldn't help but feel a little sad that Charlie was leaving.

"Okay I'll see you then. I've really got to go now" Charlie said giving Joey a quick kiss before walking out the door.

Joey leant up against the now closed door, with a huge smile on her face. She couldn't believe that she had gotten so lucky that a beautiful and stunning girl like Charlie would fall for her. She had never felt this happy before.

She was brought out of her daydreaming by a knock on the door. She turned around and opened the door

"Charlie" was all she managed to say before she felt Charlie's lips on hers. The kiss quickly developed into a long and passionate one.

When the kiss ended it was Joey's turn to be lost for words "Wow" was all she whispered leaning her head on Charlie's with her eyes still closed.

"Yes, Wow. I think that will keep us until lunch now" Charlie grinned letting go of Joey again and stepping down from the doorstep to go home.

Joey smiled back at Charlie "Yeah I think I'll just about manage until lunch now"

Charlie slowly took at few steps backwards still looking at Joey. "And ohh Joey, you look totally hot in that top" she said smiling even more blowing Joey a kiss before turning around to walk towards her car.

Joey just stood with a huge smile plastered all over her face, watching Charlie walk towards her car.

***************

As soon as Charlie walked through the back door into the kitchen, Ruby flung herself around her shrieking "finally you're home. Now tell me everything. I'm dying to hear it all"

She dragged Charlie by her hands over to the kitchen table, where she had put out breakfast for them "Okay, are you gonna tell me? Are you and Joey together?"

Charlie slumped down on one of the kitchen chairs trying to cover up her smile "Geez Ruby, can't I even get some coffee and some breakfast before you interrogate me?"

"Oh sorry Charlz, it's just that I'm so excited for you" Ruby said a little disappointed, walking over to pour a cup of coffee for Charlie.

When she turned around to give Charlie the cup, she saw Charlie grinning at Ruby. "So it went well I gather" Ruby said giving Charlie the cup.

"Yep it did" Charlie said simply, biting into a piece of toast, knowing that it would annoy Ruby that she didn't say more.

"Come on Charlz, don't be so mean, spill the beans" Ruby impatiently said biting into her own piece of toast.

Charlie chuckled at Ruby's impatience "I really don't know what it is you wanna know Rubes"

Ruby eyed Charlie, she didn't find it very amusing that Charlie was teasing her "Charlz stop teasing me. You know very well what I wanna know. Are you and Joey together?"

Charlie laughed at Ruby "Yeah Rubes. We are, but we are taking it slow okay"

Ruby shrieked, jumped up from her chair and leapt over to give her sister a big hug. "I knew it. I'm so happy for you. You deserve some happiness"

"I'm happy too Rubes. She is just so wonderful, beautiful, sweet and loving. I really can't stop thinking about her" Charlie said with a dreamy look on her face.

Ruby grinned at Charlie's expression, sitting back down on her chair to finish breakfast "ohhh you got it bad Charlz"

Charlie finished her coffee and the rest of her toast "yeah I know" she said smiling.

Charlie walked to the sink, putting her plate and cup down, sighing while turning around to look at Ruby, who was still eating. "Rubes thanks for breakfast. I really need to take a shower before I head back to work. It is crazy in there, with all that has happened"

She noticed the happy look on Ruby's face fell and shadows of sadness came over her. "Hey Rubes, are you okay?" Charlie walked over and sat down beside her, stroking Ruby's back gently.

"Yeah Charlz, it's okay. It's just so sad what happened to Martha and it is so strange to think that we are never gonna see her again and I just got scared this morning when you hadn't come home. I thought that something bad had happened to you too" tears starting to run down Ruby's cheeks.

Charlie put her arms around Ruby holding her tight, stroking her back, comforting her, while tears began to fall down her own cheeks "I'm so sorry Rubes, for not calling or texting you to tell you that I was okay. It will never happen again. I promise you, okay? I miss Martha too, so much Rubes. What happened to her was awful and that is why I have to go to work, I'm determined to catch the guy who did this to her"

They sat for a while, hugging and comforting each other. Then they heard a knock on the door and both looked up. They saw Xavier standing in the doorway - he, too, looked lost and sad.

"Hi Xav" they both said, releasing from the embrace they were in. Ruby jumped up from the chair and flung herself around Xavier.

Charlie stood watching the two teenagers comforting each other. Xavier hadn't always been her favourite, he had had a habit of getting into trouble and she didn't think that Ruby needed that. But lately he had matured a lot and they both seemed happy together. Ruby's happiness was all that mattered and, as long as she was happy being with Xavier, she wouldn't stand in the way of that. However, she hadn't forgiven him for letting Ruby walk home alone that night she got attacked, but now was not the time to talk about that.

"Well we better get off to school. Thanks for having breakfast with me Charlz. See you later and give Jo a hug from me when you see her" Ruby said, taking Xavier's hand and dragging him out of the kitchen.

"You're welcome Rubes. You know where to find me if you need me, okay" Charlie shouted after Ruby, standing at the door looking at her little sister waving her hand in the air once to let her know that she was okay now.

Before going to her room to get some fresh clothes, she took out her phone and texted Joey.

'_Hi Jo, miss u like crazy already, can't wait to see u again at lunch time... xoxo C.'_

She turned around to go take a shower and get dressed for work. She sighed, thinking about how she was going to catch Joey's brother and stop him from killing more girls. She had no idea about what to do. Perhaps she could use herself as bait and try and lure him out of hiding, she thought to herself.


	17. Chapter 17

**_A/N_**

**_Hi everybody. Thank you so much for all your kind reviews, they really do make me wanna continue writing on the story._**

**_I dedicate this chapter to the very sweet and lovely Purplemonkeyys._**

**_Enjoy!_**

**Chapter seventeen**

As Charlie walked from her car to the station, ready to start another long day of work, she heard the beeping sound of her mobile telling her she had received a text message. She took out her mobile and looked at the screen. Her face instantly lit up with a huge smile when she saw Joey's name on the screen. She stopped walking and opened the message.

'_Hi C. I miss u 2... A lot... There __are only 3 hours 50 min till I'll see you again... I'm counting down the minutes... See u later... be safe. xoxo J.'_

Charlie couldn't help but laugh at the text. She looked at her watch and quickly replied.

'_Hi J... actually it's only 3 hours 45 min now... can't wait... miss u... xoxo C.'_

Charlie put the phone back in her pocket, looked up at the police sign over the station and sighed at the thought of another very long day at work and then walked into the building.

Back in her office, Charlie sat reading through the reports from the nightshift when Watson knocked and put her head round the door. "Sorry Senior, but I have a phone call for you. It's Irene Roberts. She says that you know what it's about"

"Yes, sure, put her through Watson" Charlie said looking up from the case file she was reading.

She felt a bit guilty for not having called Irene right away to hear how Aisling was doing. Her phone rang and she instantly picked it up. "Senior Constable Buckton speaking. Hi Irene, how is Aisling doing?... that is good... ohh you're both ready to come in now... okay... well give me 30 minutes and then I'm ready to talk to her... of course you are more than welcome to stay with her while I talk to her... good Irene, then I'll see you in half an hour"

Charlie hung up the phone and went out to Watson to tell her about what had happened to Aisling the night before and to prepare an interview room for them.

Half an hour later, Charlie sat in the interview room with Irene and Aisling. Aisling was very quiet. She sat nervously biting her nails looking down at the table, while Irene sat beside her with her arm around her shoulder to comfort her.

Charlie looked at the girl and instantly felt like she needed to protect her. She reached out and took hold of her hands, not caring about looking professional. "Aisling are you okay? We can do this later if you're still too shook up"

Aisling looked up at Charlie and shook her head, instantly feeling comforted when Charlie took her hands in her own "No, I'm just a bit nervous, I've never been in a police station before"

Charlie smiled and squeezed Aisling's hands "Aisling you've got nothing to be nervous about, I just want to hear a little about what happened to you last night and then get you to look at some photos to see if you can recognise the guys that were hassling you... ok?"

Aisling relaxed a little, let out a little sigh of relief and nodded to Charlie to indicate that she was OK to continue.

Charlie pressed record on the camera and started the interview. "The time is 10.15 Thursday September 6th 2009. Senior Constable Buckton interviewing victim of an attempted assault Miss Aisling O'Sullivan. Okay Aisling, first of all can you tell me what happened to you last night?"

Aisling tensed at the thought of what had happened the night before, she didn't know how to begin and she just sat looking nervously between Irene and Charlie.

Charlie could feel Aisling tense up and start to become nervous again. She squeezed Aisling's hand again and gave her a reassuring smile. She then let go of her hand to pour her a glass of ice water. "Aisling it's okay. Just take your time and start at the beginning"

Aisling took a deep breath, looked at Irene and Charlie again who both gave her reassuring smiles, before she started telling them about the incident. "I was walking home from Nicole's, a girl I had been visiting. We had just been talking and watching a movie together. It was a really, really nice evening, time just flew by and before I knew it, it was late. I started walking home alone, the weather was really bad so I was hurrying along and took a short cut and walked down to the beach to walk along the boardwalk to get home faster"

Aisling took a break to gather herself and calm her nerves a bit. She took a sip of the water that Charlie had so kindly given her. She sighed and grabbed Irene's hand before she started to recount what happened next, which still scared her so much.

"I was walking then all of a sudden these two scary looking guys came out of nowhere and started following me and asking if I wanted to have some fun with them. They were both laughing. Their laughs were so scary and sounded so evil. I still can't get the sound of them laughing out of my head" Aisling said with tears running down her cheeks.

She wiped the tears away with her hand and continued "I said no and started to walk faster when one of the guys walked up beside me and started to tell me about all the fun I could have with him and his mate and that I should come with them. I once again said no and then he grabbed my arm and pulled me around towards him. With a big grin on his face, he told me that I couldn't get away from them, so I should just come with them"

Tears started to fall down Aisling's cheeks again and she started to shake. Irene quickly put her arm around her, stroking her back, comforting her until she was ready to continue. She handed her a tissue so she could dry her eyes. "Here you go love. Just take your time before you continue."

Aisling took the tissue, looked up at Irene and gave her a small, grateful smile to let her know she was okay again before she continued. "He let go of my arm and reached out to grab my shirt like he wanted to rip it open... but then something really weird happened, as he reached for my collar he saw my golden cross necklace and he pulled his hand away and squealed and backed away"

Aisling pulled out her necklace from under her shirt to show it to Charlie and to comfort herself a bit. She had gotten the necklace from her grandmother as a gift before she left. Whenever she felt lonely or lost she would hold the necklace and think of home and she would instantly feel better and feel like they were all with her in spirit. Feeling comforted she continued to talk. "I don't know what happened to me but I just took advantage of it and turned to run away. I saw your car and ran down to it hoping that someone was inside and luckily you were."

Charlie smiled back at Aisling thinking to herself that it was lucky she was there. She really didn't want to think about what would have happened if she hadn't been sitting in the car. She was sure that Aisling would have been the next victim if she hadn't been there yesterday and she would have been sitting looking at her photo on the wall of her office instead. Her thoughts then returned to the night Ruby had been attacked. If Joey hadn't been there then Ruby could also have been one of the pictures hanging on the back wall of her office. The thought of Ruby being hurt like that sent chills down her spine, making her visibly shudder. She was now more determined than ever to catch Joey's brother and his friends. Her train of thought was interrupted by Aisling talking again. "That was all that happened to me and I am so happy that you were there to help me, thank you so much."

Charlie smiled "You're welcome Aisling. These guys, do you think you would be able to recognise them if you saw a picture of them?"

Aisling swallowed, she didn't really want to see the two guys again, but she would never forget what they looked like. "Yeah sure, I don't think I'll forget them ever, they were so creepy"

"Okay Aisling, I have some photo albums with pictures of some guys, do you mind looking at them to see if you recognise any of them?" Charlie asked, hoping that Aisling could ID one of the guys, because that meant that her worst fear would be unfounded.

"No I don't mind" Aisling replied simply.

"Good, I'll just go get them okay" Charlie said standing up. Half way out of the door she turned around "Do you guys want a cup of coffee or tea while you sit and look through the albums?"

Irene looked up "Coffee would be nice. Thanks Charlie"

Charlie smiled and looked at Aisling "good and you Aisling?"

Aisling looked up and smiled back pointing at her glass of water "No thanks, I'm good"

Charlie returned with the photo albums under one arm and a cup of coffee for Irene in the other hand. She gave the coffee to Irene and put the albums down on the table. "Okay here they are, just take your time Aisling and look through them and if you recognise anyone then you or Irene just call me okay? I'm in my office. I'll check back in half an hour"

Aisling nodded and took the first photo album and turning the first page, started to look at the pictures.

Charlie sat down at her desk, rubbing her temples. She was already tired and the day had barely even started yet. It was going to be a very long day. She just hoped that lunch time would come soon so she could see Joey, she really missed her. She looked at her mobile and saw she had received another text from Joey.

'_Hi C... still missing you like crazy... 2 hours __seems like an eternity... xoxo J.'_

Charlie smiled. Every time she got a text from Joey, or even just thought about her, she got this tingling feeling of happiness inside that she hadn't felt in a very long time. She missed her terribly and the thought of not seeing her very much because of the case frustrated her a lot. Sighing, she hit the reply button.

'_Hi sweetie... I miss u 2... and 2 hours does seem like a long time... I'll try to see if I can get out of here sooner for our lunch date... __if you're okay with it?... xoxo C.'_

She had barely put the mobile down before she got a reply.

'_Hi C... that would be lovely... cause I don't think I can wait 2 hours to see u... just let me know when and I'll be there.... xoxo J'_

Happy and with a smile extending from ear to ear at the thought of seeing Joey sooner, she quickly replied.

'_Sure thing... I'll let u know... miss u... xoxo C'_

Half an hour later Charlie had read through some of the case files piling up on her desk. She looked at her watch and walked back to the interview room. As she walked in, she noticed that Aisling wasn't looking at the pictures anymore and sat talking to Irene.

"Hi again guys, so any luck?" she asked looking at Aisling while sitting back down in front of her.

Aisling shook her head. "No, sorry, I've been looking through all of the photos and they aren't in the albums"

Charlie sighed, she had hoped that Aisling would have recognised someone, at the moment she was the best, well, only lead to the case."Okay, are you absolutely sure Aisling?"

"Yes, I'm one hundred percent certain that the guys are not in the albums" Aisling said pushing the albums back to Charlie.

"Okay. Well thanks for your help Aisling and if you think of anything then don't hesitate to call me okay? Now let me show you guys out" Charlie said taking the albums in her hands and rising to show them out.

"Well the thing is, I've just been talking with Irene and the thing is that I'm pretty good at painting and drawing and I could make a sketch of the guys for you if that would help" Aisling said quietly, not sure what Charlie would think of the idea.

Charlie looked from Aisling to Irene. Irene just sat smiling and nodded "Charlie, she is a brilliant painter. I've seen some of her work and it would be just as good as a photo"

Charlie looked back to Aisling "Are you sure?"

Aisling smiled "Yes I'm sure and I really want you to find these guys so they don't hassle anybody else"

"Okay this would be a big help to us. What do you need to do it?" Charlie asked excitedly, still not believing that she might be getting their first official break in the case now. She couldn't tell her superior and colleagues that she knew who the killer was and how she knew. She wouldn't do that to Joey.

"Well I need some paper, pencils, an eraser and a little time" Aisling said simply.

Charlie smiled "Of course, I'll get it for you right away and you can stay in here as long as you like" She turned and walked out, calling for Watson to get her to find what Aisling needed.

Forty-five minutes later Charlie had talked to Watson about the missing bodies' case and read through the reports on her desk. One of the reports gave her an eerie feeling. A young couple had been reported missing, they had gone out for a moonlight walk last night and never returned. She couldn't help thinking that it was perhaps related to the case, but a couple didn't fit the profile and no bodies had been found. She hoped that for once her intuition would be wrong.

She heard a knock on the door just as she closed the last case file "Come in" she yelled.

The door opened and Irene popped her head through the door. "Charlie love. Aisling is finished with the sketches now, they are really good if you ask me, even though I haven't seen the guys myself."

"Ok let's go look at them" she replied, standing up walking towards Irene.

In the interview room Aisling sat quietly looking at her two drawings laid out on the table in front of her. She felt really satisfied with the result herself. She hoped they could help Charlie find the guys so they couldn't harass any more people.

Charlie came in with Irene behind her. She looked at the sketches laid out on the table in front of Aisling and she was really impressed. Aisling had managed to get so many details into the drawings that they almost looked like photos. "Wow Aisling you are really good. These sketches are really good, it's almost like looking at a photo"

Aisling blushed at the praise, she wasn't used to getting praised for her work like that. "Well... ehhh... they are alright, considering the time I've spent on them" She said trying to sound modest.

"No Aisling they are really good. I haven't seen the guys myself but these sketches look so real" Charlie said holding the sketches up in her hands.

"Thank you so much for your help Aisling. If you think of anything else or just need to talk then feel free to contact me okay? Irene's got my number" Charlie said smiling at Aisling.

Aisling rose from her chair, smiling back at Charlie "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind"

Charlie followed them out of the station, thanking them for coming, before turning back to work. She went into her office to start a case file and write about Aisling's statement. But she couldn't concentrate; she kept looking at the sketches. She needed to know if these were the same guys that Joey had told her about. She stood up and went to make a photocopy of the sketches before going back to pick up her jacket, hat, keys and mobile. She told Watson that she was going for lunch and then following up on a lead, before walking out to her car, texting Joey as she went.


	18. Chapter 18

**_A/N_**

**_Sorry for the delay in updating for this story. I've been insanely busy and my laptop died on my:(_**

**_I dont know if I should continue writing on this story, so please tell me what you all think. Your oppinion is valued and i do like your reviews :)_**

**_Enjoy !!_**

**Chapter eighteen**

As Charlie turned into the driveway and parked her car at home, she saw that Joey was already waiting for her. She had texted Joey and asked her if she would mind having lunch at her place. She didn't feel like the Diner was the right place to talk with Joey about her brother and his accomplices and to show her the sketches, particularly when Colleen was likely to be sniffing around for the latest piece of gossip. She smiled and waved to Joey as she got out of the car, going to the back seat to get the bags of food she had picked up from the Diner for lunch.

Walking up towards the house with her hands full and her eyes fixated on Joey who was also walking towards her, she suddenly lost her footing and started to glide towards Joey. Not able to maintain her balance, she began to fall. The next thing she knew, she was in the arms of a giggling Joey.

"You're not exactly Tony Hawk there" Joey joked, still holding Charlie in her arms.

"Ehhh what" was all Charlie could say, wondering what had just happened.

"You just took a step on VJ's skateboard... it looked kind of funny... but also a bit precarious" Joey said still giggling.

A little embarrassed, Charlie stood up, composing herself and grunting "Argh, I told that boy not to leave his skateboard around... it's an accident waiting to happen"

Joey couldn't help but laugh at Charlie as she started to walk towards the house, mumbling to herself.

Charlie heard Joey laughing and turned around "What's so funny?" she asked a little annoyed, still feeling embarrassed.

"Oh nothing really... I just think you look really cute when you're embarrassed and mad" Joey laughed.

Charlie's mood instantly changed from annoyed to happy. She blushed and smiled at Joey. "So are you coming?" She said trying not to show Joey that she was blushing.

"Yeah sure... and by the way... that's also totally cute" Joey said smilingly, walking towards Charlie.

"What's cute?" Charlie asked, a little confused.

"You blushing" Joey grinned, walking up to Charlie and taking the bags of food from her.

"Oh" Charlie said, blushing again.

"See.... cute again" Joey giggled, teasing Charlie.

"Oh... stop" Charlie laughed looking into Joey's eyes, immediately getting lost in them.

She gently put her arm on Joey's waist, pulling her in to give her a kiss. "Hi... you missed me?" she asked smiling.

"Uhmm ... you know I have" was all Joey could say before pulling Charlie in for another kiss.

"Yeah I know you have... who wouldn't miss this" Charlie cheekily replied pointing up and down her body.

"Oiii not full of oneself much are we?" Joey laughed as they both walked towards the house.

Once inside the house, they sat at the kitchen table talking and eating their lunch, holding hands across the table.

When they had finished lunch, Charlie stood up to put the dirty dishes in the sink and start the washing up. Joey got up to help and went to stand beside her. She could sense that Charlie wanted to talk to her about something, because her mood had changed and she had suddenly become very quiet. "Charlie, are you okay... is something wrong?" she asked softly, nervously placing her hand on Charlie's shoulder.

Charlie slowly turns to look at Joey. "Joey, we need to talk"

"Oh... ok" is all Joey could say.

She quickly removes her hand from Charlie's shoulder and looks away, fearing that Charlie is about to tell her she can't cope with her past and who she is. She readies herself for the heartbreak to come and looks up with tears in her eyes "Ok Charlie, just tell me... but please make it quick"

Charlie looks confused at Joey "What... what do you mean... make it quick?"

"Well you're going to end this aren't you... so please just make it quick" Joey whispers.

"Ohh god no Jo... I'm not... look I'm sorry if I gave you that impression but I'm not letting you go... ever... ok?" Charlie says looking straight into Joey's brown eyes.

Joey sighs with relief and lights up with a smile "Okay"

Looking into Charlie's big blue eyes, she moves closer to her. She feels Charlie's hands on her hips pulling her even closer. She puts her arms around Charlie's waist. Slowly, they move together and meet in a tender and passionate kiss.

They pull apart with their foreheads resting on each other's, still looking deeply into each other's eyes and smiling. They stay in that pose for a while, enjoying the comfort of being so close to each other.

"So what's on your mind Charlie?" Joey says breaking the silence.

"Ehmmm Joey. It's about the case... I've got something to show and ask you... that's why I asked you to have lunch here and not in the Diner" Charlie said taking Joey's hand and pulling her towards the table so they could sit down.

They sat down next to each other. Charlie could feel Joey tense up. She took her hand, entwining their fingers and stroking Joey's hand with her thumb.

Joey looked nervously up at Charlie. "So what is it you want to show me?"

Charlie looked at Joey "Ehmmm Jo, first I have to tell you something. Before I came back to you last night, I was sitting in my car down by the beach and this girl came running, screaming for help... she was scared out of her mind. I drove her home and tried to talk to her but she was too scared"

"Brett ?" was all Joey could say, looking down at the table.

"Jo I don't know but it could be. The girl came into the station this morning and gave her statement. She described two scary looking guys but the thing is Jo, this girl has this amazing talent and she drew these" Charlie took the folded copies of the sketches out of her back pocket, unfolded them and lay them down on the table in front of Joey.

Joey sat quietly looking down at the sketches, not moving or saying anything.

Charlie sat looking at Joey, still stroking her hand, waiting for some kind of response from her. When she didn't get any, she gave Joey's hand a little squeeze "Jo... honey, I need to know if you recognise these guys, if they are Brett's friends?"

Joey looked up, tears rolling down her cheeks. She nodded and whispered "Yes, those are Brett's friends. I'm so sorry Charlie for not being able to stop them. Please tell me that the girl is okay, that they didn't hurt her"

"The girl is okay, she is just a little shook up about it" Charlie said wiping away Joey's tears with her hands.

"Jo I need to ask you something else. These guys, were they the same guys that were after Ruby?" Charlie asked, still stroking Joey's cheek with her thumb.

Joey just nodded again and sobbed "I'm so sorry Charlie... I'm so sorry"

"Jo listen to me, you've got nothing to be sorry about. You saved Ruby that night and I will never forget that" Charlie continued to wipe away Joey's tears, holding her head with her hands, looking into her eyes, trying to comfort her.

Charlie took Joey's hands and pulled her up towards her so she could sit her on her lap. "Come here babe"

They sat for a while embracing each other, enjoying being close. Charlie was stroking Joey's back gently to soothe and comfort her.

"So what are we gonna do about it all? Have you got a big plan?" Joey sighed and whispered into Charlie's neck.

"Well I do have one idea Jo, but I don't know if it would work or how to tell my colleagues about it. They will have a lot of questions, for sure, and I don't know exactly what to tell them" Charlie said.

Joey looked up at Charlie, she was both curious and a little fearful about hearing Charlie's plan. "So what is your plan Charlie?"

"Well I was thinking that we could lure Brett and his friends out, using me as bait. I kind of fit the victim's profile and I could walk around in the evening to see if perhaps I could get them to approach me" Charlie told Joey. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was the only thing she could think of and the more she thought about it, the better and better it seemed.

"YOU WILL WHAT" Joey yelled and leapt off Charlie's lap. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. Had Charlie not listened to her last night when she had told her how dangerous Brett is?

Charlie, did you not listen to a word I said last night? You cannot go out there and stop him, he is far too powerful for you" Joey said, worried and frustrated that Charlie appeared to be totally ignoring her warnings about Brett.

"Joey I really think it's the best chance we have to get them and it's not like I'm gonna be alone out there, I'll have backup from my colleagues" Charlie said a little surprised by Joey's reaction. She would have thought that Joey would be glad she had a plan on how to stop her brother.

"NO Charlie. I won't allow you" Joey yelled getting even more frustrated, tears starting to run down her cheeks again.

"You won't allow me? Well Joey, I'm not asking your permission. I'm telling you my plan" Charlie said also feeling frustrated and annoyed at how Joey was reacting.

"No Charlie I won't allow you. I won't allow you to go out there and get hurt. I can't lose you. If that were to happen, I would never be able to forgive myself, so NO Charlie I won't allow you" Joey yelled, getting more and more frustrated.

With tears running down her face, Joey turned to walk out the door. Charlie reached for her arm trying to stop her. "Where are you going?"

Joey turned around looking angry and hurt at Charlie "I'm going to find my brother and stop him, before you go and do something stupid."

She pulled her arm away from Charlie's hold and, still crying, left the house. She could hear Charlie call out for her, telling her not to leave like this, but all she could think about was stopping Brett, no matter what the cost. She would do everything in her power to protect the only person she had ever truly loved.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N**

**Hi everybody. I apologize for the lack of updating, but uni is keeping me insanely busy, but i haven't forgotten about this story or The Story and i promise i will try to write another chapter as soon as possible. All your reviews made me decide to keep writing on them both. I thank u all for your reviews, they mean a lot to me. So feel free to drop a little review to let me know what u think of this chapter :)**

**I put a couple of links for the song i used in this chapter. It's a song that always make me smile, esp. the Family guy version :)**

**This chapter is for Leon Writer.**

**Enjoy !!**

**/watch?v=Z3ZAGBL6UBA**

**/watch?v=8iEatWL6Er0**

**Chapter nineteen**

Charlie sat on the couch in the living room, just staring out into nothing, tears running silently down her cheeks. Her mind was going crazy about what had just happened between her and Joey. She had actually been convinced that Joey would be happy that she had found a plan to stop her brother. Charlie knew that Joey had told her that Brett was dangerous and had told her not to go after him, but she had to try, she had an obligation to protect the people of Summer Bay. She felt relieved that she had finally gotten her first break in the case, but she also felt sad and frustrated that Joey had left the way she had. She had tried to call and text Joey to get her to come back so they could talk, but with no luck. Joey wasn't answering her mobile. She took her mobile and dialled Joey's number once more, but yet again only got her voicemail. She sighed and in frustration, tossed her mobile down on the couch beside her.

The tears started to run down her face again as she sat wondering why she always had to mess up every relationship she was in. She heard someone entering the back door and walking through the kitchen. She looked up and hoped it would be Joey, but felt a pang of disappointment hit her when she heard Ruby's voice right before she walked into the living room. "Charlie are you home?"

"Hi Rubes...why are you home?" Charlie asked turning back around, sighing and leaning her head back to look up at the ceiling.

"I'm on my lunch break and I have a free period after, so I wanted to come home and get some lunch... what are you doing here Charls?" Ruby asked walking over sitting down on the couch next to Charlie.

She quickly noticed Charlie's sad and tear-stained face "Charlie, what's wrong?" she asked putting her hand on Charlie's arm.

"Oh nothing Rubes," Charlie sighed not feeling like telling Ruby, because she was afraid she would break down again if she had to talk about it.

"Come on Charls, I know you, I can see that something is wrong, so please talk to me. Don't shut me out," Ruby said gently giving Charlie's arm a little squeeze.

"Oh Rubes, I just messed everything up with Joey," Charlie said, tears starting to run down her cheeks again.

"Why can't I get any relationship to work Rubes?" she sobbed.

Ruby put her arms around Charlie to comfort her, "Oh Charls, what happened?"

Charlie knew she couldn't tell Ruby about it, she wouldn't understand and it wouldn't be fair to out Joey. Sighing, she tucked herself into Ruby's embrace. "I just put my work before her and we got into an argument about it," she told Ruby, hoping that Ruby wouldn't ask more about what exactly she had done.

"Charlie, will you ever learn," Ruby sighed.

Looking up at Ruby, "What? Ruby you know my work is important," Charlie said feeling a little disappointed that Ruby didn't support her.

"Charlie, you know that I love you but sometimes you are just too stupid. Work isn't everything and Joey makes you happy, everyone can see that, even if you haven't known each other very long and if you really want her, you have got to show her," Ruby said looking straight at Charlie.

Charlie sighed, "Yeah you're right but I just dunno how to make this right again".

Ruby smiled, "You need to show her how you feel about her. I'll help you figure out something romantic Charls."

"Thanks Rubes. When did you get so wise?" Charlie smiled back feeling a little better.

"Oh I dunno, I guess I'm just born this awesome and amazing," Ruby laughed standing up.

Looking down at Charlie, she could tell that her sister was still a little upset "So Charls, are you okay now?" she asked smiling.

"Hmmm I guess... I dunno Rubes," Charlie said frowning.

"Well I know what will cheer you up Charlie," Ruby smiled.

"What Rubes? I don't think I'll be okay until I've talked to Joey," Charlie asked, a little confused about what Ruby had in mind.

"This!" Ruby said, starting to sing and dance in front of Charlie.

'It's peanut butter jelly time!!!  
Peanut butter jelly time!!!  
Peanut butter jelly time!!!

Now where he at?  
Where he at?  
Where he at?  
Where he at?  
Now there he go  
There he go  
There he go  
There he go

Peanut butter jelly

Peanut butter jelly

Peanut butter jelly

Peanut butter jelly

Do the Peanut butter jelly  
Peanut butter jelly  
Peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat  
Do the Peanut butter jelly  
Peanut butter jelly  
Peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat'

Ruby sang the song, flipping both arms in and out in an insanely crazy looking dance, jumping around in front of Charlie.

Charlie burst out laughing at the sight of Ruby's silly dancing in front of her.

"Where on earth have you learned that?" Charlie said still laughing.

"Oh it's a song that my friend Leon from boarding school mailed me," Ruby said, a little out of breath from the dancing.

"Who?" Charlie said, trying to remember who Leon was.

"You know Leon. Leonora. She came home from boarding school with me a long time ago, long dark hair, brown eyes. She looks a little like a young Angelina Jolie," Ruby said, trying to describe her friend to Charlie.

"Oh her. I remember her now. How is she by the way?" Charlie said, still smiling from Ruby's previous antics.

"She's good. She actually asked me if she could come for a visit during the Christmas holidays. I meant to ask you but you've been so busy lately," Ruby said.

"We'll see Rubes. We can talk about it when I get home tonight," Charlie said getting up from the couch, thinking she had to get back to work.

"Oh come on Charls. I haven't seen her in a long time… please… pretty please?" Ruby asked giving Charlie the famous Buckton pout and puppy dog eyes, which she knew Charlie couldn't resist.

Charlie sighed and knew she had lost. She couldn't resist Ruby when she pulled that face. "Ok, tell her she can come for a visit after Christmas."

"YES" Ruby squealed and jumped around Charlie's neck to hug her sister before pulling back to start the song and dance again.

'It's peanut butter jelly time!!!  
Peanut butter jelly time!!!  
Peanut butter jelly time!!!'

Charlie laughed at the sight of her sister's silly dance again, when she heard someone laugh behind her. Both her and Ruby froze and turned around.


End file.
